Some Call It Divine Intervention
by Anonymous Jonin
Summary: Some call it luck, others call it divine intervention. Call it what you will, but Jeremiah somehow escapes being left for dead, and arrives to help our hero make it through everything they'll run into together.
1. Chapter 1

**Hello all, I'm new, so Imma tell you guys a couple things before I start. I have read a lot of fantastic fanfiction on this website, some completed, others still in development. I just want to be able to write a story that will entertain you guys. There will be an OC, so be prepared. I'll do my best to make my character realistically powerful, and try to keep them from being deus ex machina. This is my first story, obviously, that I'm writing. I don't own** _ **Naruto**_ **, or, frankly, anything you recognize in this story. If you've seen it before, it's not mine. There, now that that all is out of the way, I present all of you, my debut story,** _ **Some Call it Divine Intervention.**_

To any who happen to be reading my journal,

Have any of you had a very near death experience? It scared the shit out of you, didn't it? Yeah, I bet it did. And that was just a brush with death. Imagine how scary it is to have your own father stab you through the stomach in your sleep, and leaving you for dead. Scary as hell, isn't it?

Well, it wasn't my stomach, but I say close enough. I woke up right as the knife slid between my ribs, going clean through my lung. Nothing else was even touched. Ya know, medic nins like my dad rarely miss what they're trying to hit, if they stab someone. Bonus to knowing the human body inside and out like you know your own hand. I guess I just got lucky.

Luck. I still don't believe in it. I've never been a lucky person. A countless number of skinned knees, accidental cuts on kitchen knives, and various broken bones from seemingly easy tasks hasn't exactly lended itself to me believing that I'm lucky. But I like to wonder.

I like to wonder what would have happened if my father hadn't stabbed me, if that bastard with the disgusting yellow eyes hadn't brainwashed him into deserting everything that tied him down to our village. I wonder what would have happened if that mist hunter ninja hadn't stopped by, and stopped just long enough to patch me up and nurse me back to health. But at this point, I just don't even care that much, it's more an intellectual exercise than anything. I suppose that I wouldn't be writing this, sitting in class, bored out of my mind, with some annoying ass other kids all talking to each other far too loud. I suppose I should stop writing about know, my teacher should be showing up any second now. I wouldn't expect to see too many entries, I only just got this journal, and it's my last week in the academy, so I'll probably be getting very busy in a couple days.

Signed,

-Jeremiah No-Name

-Line Break-

Iruka walked into his classroom, slightly sad, for the first day of his last week with this graduating class. He knew most would be able to pass just about any test thrown at them, but there were a few he was a little worried about. Come to think of it, he was really only worried about three kids. He really didn't want to have to fail any of them. The Nara heir, he realized would probably pass, but just barely, given their fabled intelligence, but he was still a little worried, I mean, the kid literally slept the entire class, ignoring everyone and everything, except the Akimichi heir, and occasionally Naruto and the kid from Waves. Well, the hokage said he was from Waves, but Sarutobi had that mischievous glint in his eyes that old men get when they're meddling in something that other people don't know about. Speaking of the kid, Iruka was worried about him too.

It's not like he fell asleep, but he very obviously reading something every class, and blatantly ignored Iruka and every other teacher, regardless of punishments. About a year back, Iruka and the other teachers had simply given up on trying to get him to pay attention, since he seemed to always end up right in the average area of scores for his graduating class. But he always seemed to just barely grasp the material on the day of the test, and thus, Iruka was worried about him.

Naruto was another story entirely. Iruka just didn't think he could pass at all, despite his desire to see him pass. Naruto was, no way around it, just blatantly dead last. There was no test that naruto took where he got anything better than about 10%. The worst part to Iruka, is that Naruto didn't even seem to care. He would just shrug it all off, and move on with his day, not even fazed in the slightest. Iruka liked Naruto though, and wanted him to succeed. He thought of Naruto as the little brother he had never had. 'Oh well, at this point, since the rest of the week is just review, I just have to hope that they all will be able to get it by Friday. I like these kids, but I want them to be able to move on to bigger and better things.'

-Line Break-

I don't like being bothered while I'm reading, and Iruka yelling at all of us to quiet down was on of my least favorite ways to be interrupted. In the mad scramble for all my classmates to find a seat, I ended up between Shikamaru and Naruto. I like them both, they are both nice kids, but Shikamaru seems a little wary around me, and I'm not quite sure why. I think it's because of my red hair, but that would be silly, because there are much stranger colors, like Naruto's bright blond, almost yellow. Anyway, after a quick greeting to the both of us, Shikamaru was out like a light, and Naruto was already bouncing with his strange nervous energy. I swear, if I didn't know better, I'd think that Naruto was wired into a nearly limitless power source.

"ALRIGHT CLASS SETTLE DOWN!" Iruka's screaming signalled to me the beginning of class, which to me meant the beginning of my reading time, so I opened my current fixation, a scroll on elemental manipulation I had acquired only just the day before. I liked to steal scrolls from the ninja archives. Unfortunately, being an academy student, I could only sneak into the Chunin levels at best, and thus, my selection was slightly limited. Fortunately, right now, I was just looking to improve my base skills, and not learn anything too advanced yet. My earlier years had taught me much in terms of the necessity for the basics. The hunter nin that saved me had, evidently, known only basic medic ninjutsu, but was able to heal me enough that I made a full recovery. The scar is still there, but at this point, nothing will get rid of it, so I'm stuck with it. So, before I learned any jutsus in any element, I first had to perfect manipulation, a task I was finding much more difficult than I originally expected, but after the leaf stage, all of the elements have very different methods of training, so I suppose expecting to master the first stages of all of them at the same time would prove difficult for even the most talented ninja.

"As all of you should know, the academy exams are at the end of this week. This Friday, you will all either pass or fail, and, should you pass, will arrive on Saturday for team selections. But you all know this by now, or, at least should." Iruka seemed to look very pointedly at my table, where all three of us were, well, quite blatantly ignoring him. "It will the exam will consist of three very simple parts, a mental test, with a written exam," a collective groan sweeps through the class, but Iruka plows on, ignoring it, "a physical exam, with taijutsu, kunai and shuriken throwing, and finally, a ninjutsu test, of the Henge, Bunshin, and Kawarimi Jutsus. Any questions?"

 **FRIDAY**

I've got to say, element manipulation is incredibly difficult. I've noticed that Fire and Water manipulation seem to escape me, no matter what I do. Wind and Earth are alright, but not great, and Lightning seems to come to me like I've always known what to do. I wonder why that is. The first step to all of the manipulations was to make a leaf change to fit the chakra I wanted it to, which I'm pleased to say turned out rather well. I can crinkle, burn, split, crumble and make the leaf soggy over and over again all I wanted, but, now it would do me no good. I got to that point on Wednesday, and, frankly, I've advanced beyond it. I'm trying more advanced manipulation, but my scroll only described up to the leaf part, so I'm on my own now. I've started bouncing lightning between the fingers on each hand, and I can do that fairly well now, I only got zapped once this morning, when I was practicing. I'm trying to cut larger objects, like sticks, for wind, but I haven't made much headway. I have been equally stumped on the subject of earth chakra, which I have been trying to practice with by pulling cylinders of solid earth out of the ground, but I'm struggling to hold the cylinders together consistently. Fire and water have been absolute failures. I cannot manipulate them at all beyond the leaf stage, so I might have to give up on them, which is saddening, since the only other area of study I've given up on, even temporarily, is medic jutsu. I wish I could have gotten it, but I don't think I will ever have the chakra control necessary. I've tried running up trees, walking on water, I even tried walking on water on my finger tips to perfect my chakra control, but that pinpoint chakra control needed just seems to elude me. It's a shame, really, that Iruka will probably never realize that the ignorant kid face I put on in class is a facade. Shikamaru almost seems to know, but, after all, he is putting on a facade himself. I think Naruto might be, too, but I don't know. I just don't think that someone could fail that much and still be unfazed by it all. I don't know everything, though, nor do I pretend to. I mean, since I found refuge in Konoha after, you know, the incident, I haven't learned nearly as much as I would like to.

Sarutobi's words still show up, about once a day or so, constantly reminding me of why I'm here. The day I arrived, I was brought to the Hokage's office, almost immediately, a very scary thing for a 10 year old kid who was dying just a little over a month ago.

-Flashback-

"Why are you in the Hidden Leaf Village?" He almost seemed to stare into my soul with his piercing eyes, I almost felt like he knew the answer already.

"I'm running away from my former home, and while growing up, my dad would tell me about Konoha ninja he met, who he said were very good people, and very skilled ninja. When I had to leave my village, this was the only place I could think of at the time." I said, hoping against all hope that he wouldn't ask the one question I didn't want to answer.

"Where are you running from?" He leaned forward, seeming almost intrigued by my answer, and genuinely seemed concerned.

"I lived in a village, that's all I know, my dad once said that we were very close to the Mist Village." I clutched the straps of the knapsack that was on my back, thinking 'I don't know why I was so scared, he seems so nice.'

The Hokage got up from his desk and kneeled down in front of me, at my eye level, and stared right into my eyes. "You have very green eyes, don't you? Well, young boy, you can stay here, and, of course, you will get money each month to take care of yourself, since you're an orphan and likely won't want to stay with anyone else. There is one condition, of course." His eyes seemed to brighten happily as he said this.

"What's the condition?" I responded impulsively, not really caring what it was.

"Become a ninja. You have the potential to be a truly great and gifted ninja, if my guess about your family is correct. Become great, and then you may be able to protect others from a sharing a similar childhood to yours. And you must become great, because either way, there will be a long road ahead of you, with many obstacles, none of which will be easy. You and others of your age will have to pass trials that you never should have to experience, and you must pass them with flying colors, or you will all fall tragically." His tone, demeanor, and facial expression were deadly serious. He had made it very clear that nothing I said or did would do anything to change the condition, but, at this point, I didn't particularly care. I didn't realize then the world I would really be stepping into. So I accepted, and from that day forth, I have never looked back

-End Flashback-

'You must become great.' Those words forced me to do things I didn't think I could do. I run around the village two times twice every day, at morning and at night, and I have begun to wear weights everywhere I go, as of about 6 months ago. I climb the Hokage monument by hand every morning, well before anyone else is up. Every day, I do chakra exercises, some for elements, others for control. I have learned 5 taijutsu styles during my time at the academy, and combine all of them into my own personal fighting style. The only thing I have yet to learn, are serious jutsus. I have only just begun to scratch the surface of chakra control, jutsus, and element manipulation, so I only really know the three Academy jutsus, but those I know perfectly.

The Hokage's words are a constant reminder to me why I must do well, not only for myself, but also so that I can help other people when the obstacles we must defeat reach us. I don't intend to be the Hokage, or anything so public. I intend to be the protector, there to aid people who need help. But I'm realistic. I am only about Chunin level at best right now. To truly be great, I must continue to work, for true strength comes from within, and only from one's own power.

The alarm clock in my room goes off, distracting me from my thoughts and memories. I stand up, and go to my room, turning it off. I look at the time, and leave, after gathering everything I'll need, for the academy, where I will face the first on a long road of trials that will be my life as a ninja.

 **Thanks for reading, all! I hope you enjoyed! Any** _ **CONSTRUCTIVE**_ **criticism is welcome in the reviews, all flames, or anyone looking to just be rude will be ignored. Also, can anyone guess what clan Jeremiah will be a part of? Yes, he will have a clan! Not the one you'd expect, however. Feel free to guess, and I will see you in the next chapter. I'm currently on break, so it should be out soon, in a day or two and following chapters should be as quick, but once my break is over, I'll have to slow down to a chapter every couple days, or one a week, but I'll try to keep the word count up to where it is right now. This is** _ **Anonymous Jonin,**_ **signing off.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Hey guys, I'm back! Yes, we have all survived another day! Always a good thing. Anyway, I wanted to thank everyone who read the last chapter, and shoutout to my buddy Bulba Fett, who is awesome, and reviewed, and talked with me about things that I could do to make the story better. I just wanted to thank him and tell you all that you should go check out his story Oracle, it is much longer than mine and is much farther in the Naruto timeline than mine is. When we were talking, he brought up some valid questions that I felt that I should address here before the story really starts for this chapter. Firstly, Jeremiah is not a Hatake, nor is he a Namikaze. I'm still trying to figure out when I really want his clan revealed, but all will be known before a time skip that I'll do, roughly around the canon time skip. He has had to grow up much earlier than he probably should have. I mean, his dad did stab him, and then he had to leave his home and travel for a month or so just for a chance at a life of not being a dirty street urchin, so he is much more mature than, say, Naruto seems to be, or Sakura and Ino actually are. Also, in case any more people want to ask, Jeremiah is not an Uzumaki. At best, he is very loosely related, because probably everyone from the Land of Water is a little related to the Uzumakis from Whirlpool. I know this was a little long winded, I thank anyone who made it to the end. Anyway, I don't own Naruto, and enjoy the next chapter of** _ **Some Call It Divine Intervention.**_

I always thought that my apartment was just a little bit too small for me. A kitchen, barely large enough for a single person to stand in, and just barely large enough for me to open my oven door in. Less than three steps away, my mattresses lay on the floor, one on top of the other. and just a step away, around a corner, is my bathroom. My refrigerator, very old, and barely functioning, is just outside my kitchen, and barely two steps away from my bed. At the foot of my bed, I have a trunk that I found in a dumpster behind a shop barely over three years ago. Two years ago, I had found a cracked mirror in a trash bin, and it leaned against the wall next to my bed. I liked that I had found the mirror. My father had always told me that I reminded him of my mother. It seems like a strange thing for me to be proud of, a boy looking like his mother, but I like that I look like her, it reminds me of what she looks like, whenever I forget. My mother died when I was just over 3, so I only have vague memories of what she looks like, and I'm glad that I have a way to remember her, since I don't have any pictures of her anymore.

My mom was supposedly very beautiful. From what I can remember from the pictures I had before I had to leave my home, my mom had long red hair, ocean green eyes, and had a very kind smile. She had a regal bone structure, with high cheekbones, a delicate nose, and a slim jawline. I don't quite have all of that, but I did get her red hair, green eyes, high cheekbones, and a more delicate nose than my father. I have a sharper jawline, more angled and defined than hers, more like my dad's.

I try to look at my mirror once or twice a day, just to remind myself of my mother. I looked at it everyday before I left for the academy, but today was different. Today, we take graduation exams, and I was already running a little late, so I just didn't have time today. Before I ran out the door, I grabbed my weapons pouch, after I changed out of my pajamas and into my normal outfit of black ninja pants, which I taped from mid calf down, a long sleeved navy shirt, a strip of cloth to hold back my shoulder length hair from falling into my face. With that, I ran out the door, sending chakra to my feet and legs to quicken my pace. On my way, I blitzed right past Naruto's house, glad to see that he had actually left to be on time to the academy exams. I know that a very small amount of people like him, but he's so nice, I really can't fathom why people could dislike him, even though he pranks people. I see him sometimes when I'm climbing the Hokage monument. He's always on top of the Yondaime's head, and he tries to hide what he's doing from me, but there have been a couple times where he hasn't been quick 's rather introspective. I don't know what he's always thinking about, but I do know that he is definitely hiding who he really is from the rest of the world. I just wish I knew why.

I was pulled from my thoughts by almost hitting a metal pole sticking out of someone's roof, which was annoying. I stopped thinking about other people, and focused on running to the academy so that I wouldn't accidentally impale myself on someone's roof. Once I focused, I made it to the academy in almost record time. I shot through the window, rolling across the ground for a foot or two, before landing in the seat that I usually occupied, in the back corner, farthest from the windows, somehow going unnoticed by everyone in the room already. I was rather glad to see that Naruto and the rest of the class had made it on time, and most were in their seats, despite almost all of them looking nervous enough to shit themselves right there on the floor.

The day started out as any before it would have, with Iruka arriving and immediately yelling, "Everybody better shut the fuck up and sit down, right now!" Amazingly, despite the general hyperactiveness of the class, everyone listened immediately, probably the nerves. I'm happy to say that I am not nervous about the test, probably because I knew that I was already more than capable for the test. I haven't had to practice the academy jutsus for over a year, I have yet to have to study for any of the written tests, and I have been perfecting my taijutsu styles for two years. Overall, there was no way that I was going to fail the test, barring any foul play, but that would be ridiculous. No chunin instructor would be bad enough at their job to purposefully sabotage a 12-13 year old's chances at being a ninja. That would be ridiculous.

The written test was stupidly easy, I don't think I saw Naruto and Shikamaru answer more than roughly half the questions, but I shouldn't judge, since I only really answered, like three quarters of them, and to do so would be a bit hypocritical. The physical test was about as difficult as the written test. I got all bulls eyes, except for one kunai and one shuriken that I missed on purpose, because to reveal one's full abilities all at once could be deadly to a shinobi. During the taijutsu test against Mizuki, I gave him a good fight for a minute or two, since I've been close to the top of the class in taijutsu for most of the time that I've been at the academy, but I purposefully lost after a little while. I noticed that Naruto had almost no form, but I wasn't very surprised because he had never shown any particular taijutsu discipline, although it seems to work for him and his almost berserker style of fighting, which is interesting to see in a ninja.

The last part of the test was the jutsu test. None of the jutsus gave me any trouble. They haven't been for a long time, but some people still struggle with even the Bunshin technique, like Naruto. I don't think he has the proper chakra control, but there's nothing that I can do about it now and have any effect that'll matter. Right now, I'm just waiting outside, hoping that I can catch Naruto before he heads home. I've always liked him, unlike some members of our class, and I find him easier to relate to than the other kids, since we're both trying to rough it and survive as orphans in Konoha, although I'm not really sure if my dad is dead.

I see Naruto step out of the Academy doors, and run after him. "Naruto, wait up!" I yell, getting him to stop and turn around for a second. "Did you pass?" I ask, as I reach him, stopping in front of him, facing him.

"No, as a matter of fact, I did not pass that test." Naruto replied, but not as forlornly as I expected, and with a significant amount more hope in his face than I expected of someone losing their last chance to become a ninja, their life goal.

"You don't look that bummed out," I step closer, my eyebrows furrowing as I tried to decipher the complex emotions crossing his face, "Why is that?"

"Sensei Mizuki is giving me another chance to pass the exam!" Naruto's face immediately lit up as he told me the news, which immediately spiked my curiosity. There shouldn't be another way to become a ninja, and either no one had ever passed this alternate exam, Naruto was the first to be offered this test, or it wasn't actually a second test.

'I wonder what the test is?' I thought, and decided that it needed to be voiced, asking Naruto, "Soooo, what is the test? Like, what do you have to do?" I crossed my arms, becoming extremely suspicious when Naruto told me that he couldn't tell anyone, "Mizuki's orders!", before running off, giggling slightly. Following him proved to be rather simple, since he was too focused on his "test" to notice if someone was tailing him. I stopped following when Naruto entered the Hokage mansion, electing instead to stay outside on a roof across the street. I picked him back up when he leapt out of a window that led to, what I assumed was the Hokage's private quarters, judging by a Sarutobi slowly recovering from whatever Naruto did to him, in his informal garb.

Naruto finally stopped moving, landing in a clearing in the forest after running for a solid hour into the forest. He quickly unfurled the scroll he had stolen, and started reading, while muttering something about proving that he should be a ninja. A little over an hour later, from my perch on a tree branch above Naruto, I was able to see Mizuki arrive on the opposite side of the clearing, armed to the teeth, clearly prepared for some sort of fight, despite no obvious threats in the area, and I had checked, pretty thoroughly, while also maintaining my stealth. I watched as Mizuki revealed to Naruto that the true nature of his "test" was to get Naruto to steal the scroll for him so he could take it to some guy named Orochimaru, and, while Naruto stood shocked by the complete betrayal, threw the giant ass shuriken on his back at Naruto, trying to tie up loose ends.

I jumped down in front of the crow just in time to deflect it off course so that it wouldn't kill Naruto or I, but as it kept going, one of the tips grazed my cheek, leaving a long gash from next to my nostril to an inch from my ear. "You will not hurt him. He has done nothing to you." I glared at Mizuki as best I could, with the constant pain in my cheek distracting me. "NARUTO!" He seemed to perk up at my shout, "Get the hell out of here if you're going to stand there uselessly, unless you want to help me stomp this traitorous worm back into the ground, where he belongs." I waited a long while, staring at Mizuki murderously, before I heard Naruto's reply.

"I'm staying. He deserves this. He's a traitor, and we have to take him in." I was glad to hear his normal steal and resolve slowly creep back into his voice. Mizuki, however, felt the need to put in his two cents on the situation in, yelling at us from across the clearing like a psychopath, "Really? A demon and a foreigner are going to take ME down? I'm a Chunin, and the demon didn't even make Genin!" He laughed maniacally at our startled faces. "Really? You don't know? Naruto, you don't know that you're the Kyuubi? And Jeremiah, you didn't honestly think I wouldn't know that you still bear the scar from where your father stabbed you, when you lived in Mizu no Kuni (Water Country)? Wow, you two must be really stupid!" He was laughing like a madman now, head thrown back and full on cackling, while I was slowly getting angrier.

"I am as much a shinobi of Konoha as any other, regardless of where I was born!" I yelled back, my emotional control slipping slightly, "And Naruto is not some demon, he's just another kid who wants to be a shinobi! And goddammit, he will be a shinobi that is infinitely better and more loyal than you could ever even hope to be!" I charged Mizuki, not noticing the genuinely grateful face he wore, directed at me, as I engaged Mizuki in a taijutsu battle in earnest, unlike the academy test. For every move I made, however, he was still able to effectively counter. I ducked and weaved when I could, rolling away when I couldn't, trying my best to avoid the much larger fists and feet that were almost constantly flying at me when I was defensive, so I decided to go on the offensive, easily switching from the slightly more defensible form based off of the Gentle Fist called Hummingbird which focused on dodging until a hole opens up in the opponent's defense, to one more closely related to Strong Fist, called Tiger, which focused on creating holes in their defense by wearing it down with a nonstop offense. I came out of a roll, and exploded off of my feet with a blast of chakra, hurtling me towards Mizuki. I was able to land a punch that snapped his head to the side just as he landed his first hit on me as well, right to my gut, knocking the wind out of me momentarily, and sending me skidding away. I recovered quickly, charging back for him as he caught me flying knee with his forearms, allowing me to pound down on the top of his head with a hard hammer blow from my clasped hands, sending him bouncing away under me, as I spun mid air to right myself in Mizuki's direction, just as he reengaged me with a flurry of blows, which I was able to barely dodge in time, before I came back at him, jumping up in the air again, trying to land another punch on his face, before he caught my hand, and, using his significantly superior strength, threw me into a tree, which hurt. Kind of a lot, and slowed me down just enough that I had to resort to blocking Mizuki's blows, rather than dodging them like I had been. I was slowly losing ground to the significantly more experienced fighter, despite the almost non existent gap in our taijutsu skill, before I heard a very large number of pops and Naruto's voice, screaming "How's this Mizuki?! **Tajuu Kage Bunshin no Jutsu**!" I jumped away to reassess the fight just in time before hundreds upon hundreds of Naruto clones descended on Mizuki, pummeling him into a whimpering, bloody mess on the forest floor.

"So that's what you learned from the scroll." I said, out of breath, standing next to Naruto.

"Yeah, was difficult to learn, but, ya know, figured I would start out with a harder version of the only academy jutsu I can't do, just to say screw you." Naruto said, nodding slowly.

"So, the Kyuubi, huh?" I asked, looking at Naruto to judge his reaction.

"So, Mizu no Kuni, huh?" He asked, almost at the same time, causing us both to laugh a little bit before getting serious again. "Yeah, the Kyuubi. I suppose that it explains a lot of people's opinions of me, despite them never meeting me. I suppose that the Yondaime must have sealed it inside of me before he died. Only explanation I can come up with right now that makes any sense at all."

"You know what that means though, right?" When he looked confused at my question, I decided to enlighten him as to my thoughts. "That makes you a fucking hero. Everyday you're still alive means that the Kyuubi hasn't gotten out yet, so everyday you're saving everyone in Konoha from certain death." I clapped him on the shoulder supportively, glad to see him perk up a bit at my words.

"I suppose you could look at it that way," He said, smiling happily before turning to me, "but what was that about you being a foreigner?"

"I was ran out of town in Mizu no Kuni by the people I used to call friends because my dad left to join up with some yellow eyed dude who looked really creepy, and they all evidently hated with a burning passion. 'Course, that was right after he stabbed me, about a centimeter below the bottom of my heart, going clean through my lung. I only lived because a passing Kiri hunter nin saw me, and took pity on me, healing me enough that I could recover on my own. When I got run out of town, Kiri was already on the brink of civil war, what with the bloodline purges, so the only place I could think to go was here, to Konoha. My dad had met a lot of Konoha ninja and had only good things to say, so, I traveled for a little over a month, got settled here as an orphan, and enrolled in the academy. Pretty much everything else you already know." I said, looking for Naruto's reaction, waiting for him to hate me for being an outsider, like almost all of the adults in Konoha seemed to. But, the only thing I found was the face of someone who knew exactly what I had had to deal with in Konoha. "Look, from now on, we're friends, yeah? That way, we'll each always have at least one person that we know we can count on, okay?" I extended my hand to him, which he shook, nodding to me with a smile on his face, before I left, telling him that he should take credit for taking down Mizuki, and leaving before he could argue.

I left before Iruka arrived, not stopping until I reached home to patch myself up. Thus, I had no way to know that not only was Naruto not in trouble at all, he had actually made Genin. I went to sleep, thinking about team selection the next day, and the first person in Konoha that I could legitimately claim friendship with.

-The Next Day-

I woke up with a start, immediately jumping out of my bed, terrified by the man in the ANBU mask and gear standing over me, shaking me awake. "Who the fuck are you and how did you get in?" I asked, mildly terrified.

"The Hokage wants to speak with you. Get dressed and go to his office in the Hokage's mansion. He will be expecting you." The ANBU left without answering any of my questions, instead opening my window in my kitchen and leaping out.

 **Duh duh duuuuuuh. Much dramatic. Such cliffhanger. I don't know how many of you will be reading this on Christmas Day, but thanks so much to all of you. This chapter is much longer than the first, which is nice, I hope you guys enjoyed. Always remember to review and follow, and if you want, you can favorite. Whatever you guys do, thanks for reading, and I hope to see even more of you next time, in the third chapter. My schedule is a lot more open for the next couple days, so I hope to be able to get the third chapter out much faster than this one. I hit some pretty hard writer's block early on in this chapter, but I got through it alright I think. Anyway, I'm rambling and I can practically feel you guys yelling at me to stop talking, so, farewell for now.**


	3. Chapter 3

**Hey guys, thanks for coming back, glad to see ya, I hope you're all reading this on Earth, but if not, good for you! Way to go! Didn't know that people could get wifi on Mars, or in heaven, hell, or wherever you are. Well, if you're in hell, you're probably on dialup. So have fun with that. But I digress. I don't own Naruto, I don't own a great many things, but I recently acquired an xbox one and a leather jacket, both of which I do actually own, so that's fun. I hope you guys enjoy the chapter, this and the next chapter are going to have a timeskip between them, around a couple months, and the next chapter will be the Wave arc buildup and beginning of that mission. I hope the ending of the last chapter didn't mess with you guys too much. Anyway, I hope that you guys enjoy this next chapter of** _ **Some Call it Divine Intervention.**_

Last time: _"The Hokage wants to speak with you. Get dressed and go to his office in the Hokage's mansion. He will be expecting you." The Anbu left without answering any of my questions, instead opening my window in my kitchen and leaping out._

'Ummm, what the fuck?' I thought, standing around confused like an idiot, until what he said sunk in, and I scrambled to get dressed, pulling on dark blue ninja pants, a short sleeved dark green shirt, put on my weapons pouch, and ninja sandals. I got dressed as fast as I could, grabbing a granola bar for me to eat as I sprinted out the door. I stopped just long enough to lock the door behind me, before speeding off towards the Hokage's mansion with an explosive release of chakra from my feet, accidentally cracking the concrete outside my door.

I reached the Hokage's mansion in minutes, and sped my ways through the hallways, bouncing off of walls around corners to maintain as much speed as possible, and blitzed right up to the secretary outside of Sarutobi's office, stopping just long enough for her to tell me that he was waiting for me, so I burst in through the doors, slightly out of breath from sprinting across the city. "You wanted to talk to me, Hokage-sama?"

"Yes, thank you for being so punctual. I wanted to talk to you before you left to go to team selections, as this conversation is regarding that, and your place in the team selections. You see, Naruto failing the exam gave us a perfect 27 passing Genin, easily distributed into 9 different teams, ideally giving us an even 10 Genin teams, since team 3 is still active." Sarutobi looked at me, his hands clasped in front of him on his desk. "Now, Naruto was, under advisement from Iruka and my own personal judgment, allowed to become a Genin. Of course, this does give us one too many Genins to fit the three man team that we always use. So, I have decided to place Naruto on team 7, with the Uchiha and the Haruno, to maintain the team matchup of the dead last with the Rookie of the Year, and the top kunoichi. You will have an alternate method of teaching, should you accept it. If you don't, you will, of course, simply not become a Genin."

"Is there even really a choice? And why am I not on a Genin team? This seems like, well, utter shenanigans, Hokage-sama! Why do I have to be forced off of a team? How do you expect me to learn to work with other ninja if I don't have a team to work with? How am I supposed to learn anything about being a Konoha ninja if I don't even have a Jonin sensei?!" I asked, my voice slowly rising in decibels until the last question was shouted at the Hokage. I was extremely mad, assuming that 'alternate method of teaching' meant that I wouldn't have a Jonin sensei, or even sempai. I chose to assume that it meant that I was effectively being stiffed, getting the raw end of the deal, getting stuck with some halfwit Chunin trainer.

Hokage-sama, as always, remained calm, regardless of what I was saying or doing, and chose to wait for me to stop seething so intensely before he answered any of my questions. "First of all, you always have a choice, and you should always remember that. Secondly, to address two of your questions at once, you will have a private Jonin sensei, one who does not take entire Genin teams, but rather single ninjas to teach one at a time, and you will not technically be classified as being on any Genin teams so that I can use you to run support for them, to use as emergency aid if needed, and a delaying force to buy time for more teams to arrive if that is needed. Thus, you will not go on missions with only ever the one team, but rather go on missions with any and all Genin teams that may want or need your help. So, to prepare you for that, you will have three months straight work with your sensei before you go on any missions, as that is usually how long it takes Jonin senseis to start requesting C ranks and higher for their rookie teams."

I was floored. I don't know how I could have predicted that this would happen to me. As far as I knew, this had never happened before in Konoha's history. "So, I would work with every rookie team at least once, most likely?" I asked, the beginnings of a smile starting to form on my face. "Of course, only if their Jonin sensei requests my help, but could I possibly go on all of the first C ranks that the rookie teams take?" I started to feel hopeful, and after Sarutobi's seemingly begrudging nod of affirmation, I felt downright ecstatic. I would be able to work with my friends, finally becoming a true Konoha Genin, or at least, as close to one as I could manage right now. "Wait, who's going to be my Jonin sensei?" I looked around, confused, noting that there were no ninja in the room besides Sarutobi, his Anbu, and myself.

"Well, that's where this gets a bit interesting. See, I was watching your fight against Mizuki last night." At my look of shock, he just smiled mischievously before continuing. "Oh, yes, I was watching. I wasn't there, but, well, I have my ways. Anyway, I noticed that you are much more advanced than the other members of your graduating class, and much better than you let on during the final exams. So, I decided to do something that hasn't happened in a very long time. I am, ideally, going to fast track you to Jonin. Of course, however long you take to reach Jonin is, obviously up to you, since you will determine when you will take the Jonin exam, but that is a long way off for the time being. So, in the meantime, to prepare you for the role that you will serve while a Genin, I'm apprenticing you to one of the best Anbu I have, and is one of the finest Anbu I have ever had the pleasure of commanding." Sarutobi snapped his fingers, and a blur dropped from the ceiling, landing in front of his desk, less than three feet from me. The Anbu wore the traditional Anbu gear, the black black clothing, grey flak jacket, dark grey greaves and dark grey vambraces. The mask they wore, like every other Anbu, was modeled after an animal, this particular Anbu's being a cat.

"This will be your Jonin sensei, Anbu codename Cat. She will train you in kenjutsu, elemental ninjutsu, various basic ninjutsu that all Anbu must know, and will help you perfect your taijutsu styles, especially helping you get better at switching between styles at a moment's notice. That particular skill will be extremely useful in the future, for if you opponent doesn't know what they will have to defend against, they won't know how to defend against you. Now, you are dismissed, and Jeremiah? Don't bother going to the academy. It would just be a waste of time for you, since you would have no place there. Go home, rest up. You'll begin training tomorrow at the crack of dawn." He turned his chair away from Cat and I, clearly indicating out dismissal. I walked out, Cat trailing barely a step behind me the whole way out of the mansion. She spoke to me in a clearly distorted voice, saying only, "You will meet me at training ground 23. It is a restricted training ground for only Anbu and Jonin of equivalent rank, but you will not be barred entry. You will arrive early." With that, she left, seemingly melting into the shadows of the mansion, disappearing entirely.

-The Next Day-

I found myself walking into training ground 23 roughly half an hour before the sun would rise over the village, and thus roughly half an hour early for my training session. I pulled out a kunai just in time to deflect roughly twenty shuriken away from my body, before looking around as calmly as I could, trying to pinpoint the source of the attack. Seconds later, I found myself flat on my back, a ninjato against my throat, my kunai inches from Cat's mask. "Very good. You have good reflexes. Now, come at me, with all you have, taijutsu only. If you manage to land even a single hit, I will give you my Anbu mask." She stood up, walking just over ten paces away. "Whenever you're ready." I could almost feel her mocking smirk through the mask. I looked around the training ground quickly, trying to find something I could use to my advantage. I found nothing. For what appeared to be a little over half a mile in every direction from the entrance, was cleared woodland, nothing but grass slowly waving in the light breeze. I tightened my new Konoha headband, readying myself before blasting off of the ground with a burst of chakra out of my feet, subconsciously channeling lightning chakra to my legs, numbing them slightly, but giving me an even larger speed boost, putting me on par with a low Jonin's base speed without chakra.

I led with an attempted knee to the face, like I had against Mizuki, but Cat caught it, pushing me slightly away. I slipped into my Hummingbird stance, legs wider than shoulder width, arms to the side, my non dominant side, my left, facing toward her. I stepped forward quickly with my right foot, forcing Cat to step back slightly, before I planted my right foot, using it as a pivot as I swung my left foot around in a rapid circle to try to sweep her ankles. Cat dodged by jumping forward, and, putting her hands on my head, used me as a springboard to help her launch into a handspring that took her twenty feet away from me. Instead of attacking, Cat elected to sit back and watch to see what I would do. Still low to the ground, I switched into my self named Cheetah style, which took more advantage of my natural speed, and the neutral starting stance of which looked very similar to the Inuzuka's stance before a Gatsuga.

I shot forward, my feet digging a trench into the ground at my launch point even without chakra, as I approached Cat at full tilt, before I slid at her, legs forward, body stretched out behind them, forcing her to dodge straight upwards. I flipped onto my stomach mid skid, and used chakra to stick my hands to the ground, stopping myself so I could get my feet under me, before I kicked straight upwards, launching myself directly at Cat from behind. At the last second, she cocked her head to the side, causing my fist to miss by inches, and causing me to fly past her to roll in the grass before popping back up into the vertical stance of my Tiger style, with my feet square towards Cat, shoulder width apart, a slight crouch, and arms brought up in a boxing-esque guard, again with my left foot closer to Cat. I stood back, opting to wait for her to go on the offensive, which turned out to be a mistake.

Cat, noticing my hesitation to initiate another skirmish, instead charged me at much higher speeds than I could follow, before slipping past my guard landing a punch square to my gut, lifting me off of the ground, before my fist shot forward, clipping the side of her mask before she could move her head totally out of the way, taking a small piece off of the side, as she assumed that I wouldn't be able to counterattack with the wind knocked out of me. She quickly stepped away, turning her back to me, before very quickly replacing her mask with one that she unsealed from a scroll in her flak jacket. She turned around to see me wheezing on the ground, momentarily struggling to get my breath back after being hit by what felt like a freight train slamming into my diaphragm. She tossed over the mask that I had taken a piece off of.

"Here, you technically landed a hit. That wasn't too bad. Not great, but not bad, either." She looked over at me, her expression unreadable behind the mask. "Taijutsu was the only thing I wanted to test today. We will begin training in a half an hour." She walked out of the training ground, only to return just under half an hour later. I had elected to not wear the Anbu mask, instead putting it inside my weapons pouch for the time being. When Cat returned, she seemed to stare me down for a long moment before saying anything.

"The first jutsu that any Anbu absolutely must know is the Shunshin. It is incredibly useful outside of battle for transportation, and in battle, it can be used to get behind an opponent and surprise them, should you have the concentration necessary with it. Of course, if you can perfect it to the level of Shisui Uchiha, you won't even need to think about it, or, if you can truly master it, use hand seals. It is not particularly chakra draining to most ninja, as it is only a D-rank jutsu, but, in the hands of a master, can be so much more." Cat demonstrated the technique by flickering around the training ground several time. "It requires only the tiger seal, if you need it, and is rather easy to pick up."

The two times I tried to use the jutsu, I failed miserably. Didn't speed up my movement at all. On the third try, I felt myself move a little bit faster, and my ability with the jutsu quickly grew until I could use it with very little thought, flickering about the training ground. By the time I reached this point, the sun was starting to set, and I was bid to go home and rest up, but to meet Cat at the same place at the same time the next day to continue my training. She said that tomorrow, we would begin with my kenjutsu after a lot more taijutsu practice. I took this to mean that my first day would be an anomaly, in terms of how much time I would spend on taijutsu each day.

That night, I went to bed happy. I was finally beginning to realize my goal of being capable of protecting others. The training would be great to help further this goal, but for me, three months from now couldn't come quick enough. I couldn't wait for the chance to see my friends as ninja, and to fight alongside them.

 **Hey guys, thanks a lot for reading. I really appreciate the fact that you all really like my story and take the time to really read it. For all of those of you who have questions, comments, concerns, feel free to voice them by clicking that handy dandy review button. I hope you all like the direction I'm starting to take the story in, and I hope you all enjoyed this chapter. The next chapter should be up in a day or two, depending on my schedule. Anyway, thanks for reading, and don't forget to follow, favorite, and review. You guys are the dankest, and I will see you next time. PEACE!**


	4. Chapter 4

**Thanks everybody, for making it back for the fourth chapter of my story. This chapter takes place 3 months after the last one, approximately, give or take a few days. So, I hope you guys enjoy reading my story, and if you have any things you want to ask, comments you want to place, or suggestions that you think might help make the story better, feel free to go right to that review button, and leave me a sweet review. Anyway, on to the story, I hope you guys enjoy the next installation of** _ **Some Call it Divine Intervention.**_

I woke up, like usual, about an hour before daybreak, and got dressed. I threw on a black mesh armor shirt under a dark navy long sleeve shirt. I pulled on my deep green, almost black, pants. I quickly donned the Anbu mask I had won from my sensei to hide the very pronounced scar I had acquired on my left cheek, and I have slowly become more and more comfortable with hiding my face, as stares had become leveled at me in rapidly increasing frequency, now due to both my strange hair, and also my strangely located scar, as a facial scar is very rare to see, either on ninja or on civilian. I had modified the mask slightly, namely severing it in half, so that the half that I wore covered from just under my eyes all the way down the rest of my face. I found that wearing the top half of the mask was useless, as all jutsus used to enhance it did not work anymore after I chipped it, and now simply limited my vision, giving me a rather severe handicap in a fight. I pulled on my ninja sandals, grabbed my weapons pouch, and slung the katana I had across my back before I started my morning run, three times around the village. Most days, I would see Might Gai and Rock Lee as they just finish their run, their last and my first laps often overlapping. It was an interesting thing to see, their morning workout, even if I only saw a small part of it.

I finished my laps, slowing down slightly as I stopped in training ground 23, just before the sun rose over the trees on the horizon. I sat down on the ground, doing the stretches that I had become accustomed to doing every day, for the past three months. At this point, I wasn't even doing the stretches consciously, merely using muscle memory to guide myself through my daily routine. This allowed my mind to drift off, and focus on other things, like what jutsu I might be starting to learn today, and whether I would be spending more time today on kenjutsu, taijutsu, or ninjutsu. I decided that, given the choice, I would focus more on kenjutsu today, but quickly put that off my mind, since I wouldn't have a choice, since my Anbu sensei would dictate what I will learn today, just like she did every day.

Over the last three months, I have spent every day, from dawn to dusk, training. First I learned the shunshin jutsu, which I had successfully added my lightning chakra to a little over two weeks ago, which actually allowed me to seemingly blink around the battlefield, as if I were disappearing and reappearing in a flash of lightning. After that, Cat-sensei spent roughly a month with me, until I had finally perfected switching between taijutsu forms, from any of my five styles to any other, mid battle, and as quick as thought. I no longer had to settle into the starting stance for any of my styles before using them, allowing for seamless transition between them. The unpredictability allowed me to fight on even footing with people more skilled than I in taijutsu, as I had proved by fighting Rock Lee on even footing for roughly ten minutes, before he was able to land a good hit on me, which sent me flying across the training ground we were on at the time, and slammed into a tree, knocking me out.

After the month of taijutsu training, I still practice my taijutsu every day, but to a much lesser extent than that first month. For the next two months, I only spent two to three hours a day on taijutsu, instead focusing on other fighting disciplines. The second month of training was spent getting seemingly small cuts all over my body every day, going home to bandage them, and then having even more cuts inflicted upon me the next day. I spent that month learning kenjutsu from, I have been told, the best kenjutsu fighter currently in the Anbu ranks. That, of course, meant that I spent most of that month getting absolutely dominated in every kenjutsu spar, as Cat spent the whole time pointing out to me every fault and mistake I made. It was not a fun month.

I did, albeit slower than I would have liked, eventually started to do much better in our spars, that to this day, I was able to recognize the mistakes that I was making when I was making them, so although our fights are still very one-sided, I have been taking much greater care to learn more and more from each fight. With money that I have been setting aside since I settled in Konoha from my government orphan stipend, I bought a katana. It's longer than the traditional Anbu ninjato, or chokuto, but it seems to better suit my fighting style. I have it slung across my back in a baldric, with the hand and a half hilt with poking up over my right shoulder. The blade itself was just over two feet long, approximately twenty five inches. The blade was made of a steel forged using chakra iron, making it stronger, lighter, and also slightly harder to forge than either chakra iron swords, or steel swords. The purchase absolutely cleaned me out of all the money I had, and the sword was even on sale, as the blacksmith I had bought it from had not been able to sell it for over eight years, despite almost monthly markdowns. The sword itself was rather plain, except for a serpent motif in the hilt that ran six inches down the blade. I found it fit my fighting style much better than the ninjato I used for the first month of my kenjutsu training, and improved much quicker with kenjutsu with my katana than I had with the ninjato.

The third month was spent perfecting my lightning affinity, for although it came to me much easier than the other four, was still something I had to sink over two weeks into to perfect, and I was able to learn to channel my lightning chakra through my katana, while also learning some low level lightning style jutsus, namely Raiton no Jutsu (Lightning Technique), which allowed me to focus my lightning chakra into a singular bolt that I directed out of my finger to either explode on and momentarily paralyze a target, or pierce a small hole straight through them, depending on how much chakra I use, and also Raiton: Jibashi (Lightning Release: Electromagnetic Murder), which projected a short pulse of electricity from my hands which could stun or paralyze an opponent, or punch roughly a fist sized hole straight through them, if I pumped a lot of chakra into it. I preferred not to use that much chakra with either technique, preferring to use them to stun them so that I could subdue them with taijutsu, instead of creating a very bloody situation with them. My favorite jutsu to use, however, is still the lightning shunshin that I have quickly mastered to a high enough degree where it takes an almost unnoticeable amount of chakra, even over extended periods of time, and could be used without hand signs most of the time, even mid fight.

However, when Cat arrived, it was not to train, but to escort me to the Hokage's office instead. We arrived seconds before Naruto burst in through the doors of the Hokage's office, desperately fighting a cat off of his face, seemingly only moments away from resorting to just murdering the cat, just to rid himself of the trouble it was creating for him. Frankly, from the look of the cat and it's demeanor, I think there would be a very short list of people who would fault him if he did. Sasuke, Sakura, and their jonin sensei walked in moments later, Sasuke looking extremely bored as usual, Sakura focusing only on Sasuke, and their sensei reading a book with an orange cover that I had never seen or read before. They turned in their mission, their sensei being the only one to notice Cat-sensei and I in the corner to the side of the Hokage's desk, inclining his head inconspicuously to my sensei, receiving a quick nod in return.

"Team seven, reporting a successful mission, Hokage-sama." Their sensei sounded somewhat reluctant, almost bored. "Well, good job, Kakashi, that must be the third time you four have caught Tora this week. That is quite impressive." The Hokage pulled a cat cage out from under his desk, and Naruto put the cat inside of it, happy to be rid of the menace. "Well, the Daimyo's wife will be by later today to pick you up," the Hokage said, directed at Tora, who simply hissed, while Sarutobi turned back to team seven, "Now, I have several more D rank missions for you today, Kakashi, I have weeding, dog walking…" He didn't get to finish, as Naruto was groaning loud enough that nothing else could be heard over it. "Yes, Naruto, do you object to something?" Sarutobi leaned forward calmly, his chin resting in his palms, in feigned interest.

"We've been doing D ranks for two months already, we must be ready for something else, something more challenging, I mean, seriously, these missions suck, they're so boring!" Naruto punctuated his last statement by kicking at the air, as Sasuke, who used to almost always oppose Naruto, simply on principle, actually agreed with him. "Naruto is right, we are more than ready to move on to harder missions, Hokage-sama, and we should have moved on over a month ago."

"Well, it's not really up to me, is it?" Sarutobi said, looking pointedly at Kakashi, "It's up to your Jonin sensei. Kakashi, do you think that they are ready for a C rank mission?" Kakashi looked up from his book, that I realized he was only fake reading, putting it into his weapons pouch. "Hokage-sama, I was really waiting for my Genin to ask me before we took any C ranks, and since they think that they are ready, and since I know that they have been training rather heavily for the past three months, on top of completing at least one D rank per day after the first month. At this point, even I am becoming bored with D ranks, and Jonins don't even have to do any work for them. So, Hokage-sama, what C ranks do you have?"

"I only have one C rank today, it's an escort mission to the Land of Waves. I'll probably have more tomorrow, should you want to wait that…" The Hokage was very loudly interrupted by shouts from all three genin, who, apparently, absolutely needed that mission. I didn't understand the draw of it, but, I also hadn't been forced to do D ranks every day for the past two months on top of what I'm sure was vigorous training from one of the highest ranked ninja in the village not in the Anbu. "Very well, Cat, if you would step forward now, please." Sarutobi looked in our direction very pointedly, bringing attention to us for the first time the whole meeting.

My sensei stepped forward, gesturing me to step forward, too. Sarutobi looked me up and down. "Cat, go get the client. Team seven, this is going to be the fourth Genin on your team for the mission. Naruto, you in particular might be happy about it. Jeremiah, remove your mask, if you would." I pulled my mask off of my face, watching as Kakashi's eyes quickly flickered from Naruto to me, and down to my scar. "For the first C rank of every Genin team in your year, each team will bring along with them an extra Genin. Jeremiah has been spending the last three months training every day from dawn until dusk. He will be on your mission to both give him mission experience, and also to lessen the potential stress that a C rank can create, especially on a new Genin team. It is a new program that I've started this year, as your class has some of the most promising genin in a long time, and I want to lower the risk of losing any of you as much as possible. C ranks have very low mortality rates, but there is always the potential for them to get, well, fucked up beyond all recognition. Ah, Cat, and Tazuna, what wonderful timing!" Sarutobi said, as my sensei came in, followed by a man who was swaying slightly as he walked, and was enshrouded by the very pungent stench of alcohol.

"You've got a bunch of fucking pre-teens protecting me? That's all?" Tazuna exclaimed angrily. "Well, Tazuna-san, I will also be with you, if that helps." Kakashi said, again with his nose in his book, feigning disinterest. "I AM one of the highest ranking ninjas in the village, so I think we will be able to handle anything that will arise on any normal C rank mission. This IS going to just be a normal C rank, correct, Tazuna-san?" Kakashi looked up, scrutinizing Tazuna closely, until he gave Kakashi a seemingly tentative nod. "Then we should have no issues protecting you, Genin team or not."

Tazuna, looking successfully cowed, simply nodded reluctantly, and turned on his heels towards the door, pausing with his hand on the door handle, he turned back around slightly, "Hokage, per our agreement, I will depart tomorrow morning with your ninja as escort, at approximately eleven o'clock." With those parting words, Tazuna opened the door and left as quickly as possible.

"Team Seven, Jeremiah, you will all meet Kakashi and Tazuna at the front gate. You will always arrive at least an hour before any escort missions that will take you outside of the village. Now, you are all dismissed. Good day." Sarutobi dismissed us all with a wave of his hand.

I left quickly, walking at a brisk pace until I left the mansion. Once I was outside, I quickly ran off, using my shunshin to reach my apartment in just over a minute, so that none of Team Seven had time to even think about asking me questions. Once inside, I started gathering all the supplies that I had into storage scrolls that Cat had given me, before I started writing down all of the necessary supplies that I would need to purchase, since I didn't have them in my apartment. From my experiences travelling through Wave when I was younger, I knew that, on top of the restock of kunai, and shuriken, the purchase of various rations like energy bars, I would also need a waterproof cloak, and some extra clothing to be safe.

-Line Break-

 **The Next Day:**

I stood, leaning against the archway that encompassed the giant wooden doors that were the only official entrance or exit to and from Konoha. I was excited to go on my first mission, but I also really did not want to be here right now. Mostly because Sasuke kept staring really creepily at me. We were about thirty minutes early, and Naruto, surprisingly, had arrived even earlier than Sasuke and I had. Naruto had stayed quiet, seemingly not wanting to ask me any questions at all, which was a bit odd, because he didn't seem like the type to stay quiet. Sakura arrived about fifteen minutes later, and immediately jumped into asking me questions about where I had been, what I had done, and who had trained me. I don't like Sakura, so ignoring her and her incessant prying was very easy.

After about ten more minutes of ignoring Sakura, I spotted Kakashi walking down the road toward us, with Tazuna accompanying him, wearing a hat that I saw rice paddy farmers wearing when they were working, to protect them from the sun. Much to my disapproval, he was also carrying a bottle with liquid sloshing around inside of it, that was very clearly not water, and was most likely some sort of hard liquor, judging by his smell in the Hokage's office yesterday. "Oh, goody, you're all already here, and ready to go. Tazuna-san, while we are traveling, you will remain in the middle of all of us. Naruto, you will cover the right, Sasuke, the left, Sakura, the rear, and Jeremiah, you'll be up front with me." Kakashi looked at all of us, with a seemingly forced eye smile. I put my mask on, covering up most of my face, before nodding and moving to stand next to Kakashi, as we all started the long walk from Konoha to the Land of Waves. As we walked, I heard Naruto asking Tazuna questions about his job, how he became a bridge builder, and why a bridge builder was so important to Wave. About three hours into the journey, I spotted a puddle by the side of the road. I pointed it out wordlessly to Kakashi, wondering if it could possibly be anything important, as it hadn't rained in a little over a week.

Kakashi just shook his head slightly, staring at me until I nodded back, regardless of how uneasy the situation made me feel. We continued walking, not losing stride, right up until we reached the puddle. Just as Kakashi and I drew level with the puddle, two ninja burst out, both cloaked, and each wearing a large clawed gauntlet on opposite hands, with a chain running between the gauntlet. They ran forward, wrapping Kakashi up in the spiked chain, before pulling hard enough to slice him in half. I drew my katana, bursting forward with a quick shunshin, before channeling lightning chakra through my blade, and cutting straight through the chain, neutralizing one threat, before stabbing at the one with the gauntlet on his left hand, cutting through his bicep, before jumping away, towards Tazuna, to avoid the swipe from the ninja with the gauntlet on his right arm.

"That little fucker! Gozu, he got me real good" The one I had cut stood, hunched over, clutching his bicep that was spasming painfully from the lightning chakra, rapidly aggravating the wound to the severed muscle. He looked up, hatred burning behind his pupils, pointing at me with his right hand. "Kill that little bastard! I want his head!"

"I was planning on it, Meizu!" The other one screamed, rushing forward towards me and Tazuna as Team Seven stood by, frozen, but for Naruto, who jumped in front of Tazuna, summoning a dozen clones to attack the brother named Meizu, who was struggling just to dodge the wild and unorganized attacks from the clones. Kakashi dropped from a tree branch above Meizu, stabbing a kunai through his head, then straightening up to watch as I dashed forward towards Gozu, ducking under his swinging gauntlet, kicking it up to knock him off balance, before stabbing through his right thigh with my electrified katana, pinning him to the ground as he writhed in pain, his muscles spasming violently.

Kakashi walked over, standing next to me, staring down at Gozu critically. "The Demon Brothers from the Mist, huh?" He crouched down in front of his face, getting very close to him. "What were you after? Are you after the bridge builder? Hmmmm?" Kakashi stayed in that position, until Gozu nodded weakly, barely able to concentrate on Kakashi. He groaned very loud, before spitting out, "We were sent to kill the bridge builder, by Gato."

Kakashi looked at him, intrigued by his response, before looking at Tazuna quizzically, and also slightly angrily. "You deceived us. You withheld very valuable information from both us and the Hokage. This should be a B rank, at least, and one that the Hokage would not even consider giving to a genin team. I'm sorry, Tazuna, but I believe that we must return to Konoha. It would not be a wise decision for us to continue on with this mission. Team Seven, Jeremiah, we shall take our leave." Kakashi turned back the way we came, only to be stopped less than a moment later, by a shout from a blond who, up until now, had been startlingly quiet for the last several minutes.

"NO! KAKASHI-SENSEI! We can't just abandon the mission. We've already started, and Wave needs Tazuna. We have a duty as ninja and as people to help the people of Wave." Naruto stepped forward angrily, rapidly closing the gap between him and his sensei, sticking his face right up into Kakashi's. I had never seen Naruto quite this angry. He was unfathomably irate about the idea of abandoning a mission that was likely to end in failure, or at least some form of tragedy. Frankly, I don't care much. Whether we continue, or leave Tazuna, doesn't matter much to me, and yet, I still find myself mentally siding with Naruto, rather than Kakashi, despite Kakashi's more logical approach to the problem. But I didn't have time to say anything, before Sasuke spoke for the first time all day.

"I agree with the teme. We have committed to this mission, and as such, we will finish it as we would any other mission that went sour." Sasuke sounded surprisingly mature for someone our age, though that was not unexpected, as mature often comes quickly to those who stumble upon the aftermath of the genocide of their own family by their own brother. At least, that is what all the children had heard was what happened. "Jeremiah? Sakura? Anything to say?" Kakashi said, looking very pointedly at me, knowing who Sakura would side with. Instead of speaking, I simply shook my head side to side to tell him no.

"Well then, since it is pretty unanimous, team seven will continue on with you towards Wave, Tazuna. Team, same formation as before, but stay more alert this time. I want to avoid as many ambushes as possible. Jeremiah, Naruto, well done with reacting to the Demon Brothers's attack in time to prevent anything from happening. Move out." Kakashi turned and continued down the path in the direction we had been walking before the attack. I jogged slightly for a second to catch up with him before I could slow down to a brisk walk to match his much longer strides.

-Line Break-

 **A Week Later**

Civilians move so slowly. How they manage to move at such a slow pace all the time just baffles me. Even as a child, I jogged anywhere I could, to get there faster. It didn't make any sense to me to waste any time that I could possibly use for other things. The only time I spent walking was when I was inside of a store. However, Tazuna had not had even a single percent of the training team Seven or I had received, and thus had to travel at a walk to be able to make the journey.

Earlier today, we had reached the coast line of Hi no Kuni, and we were able to hitch a ride with a man in a boat who seemingly knew Tazuna, and was doing him a favor. He seemed gruff, but also very scared that his actions would have very dire consequences. He spoke very little, but to tell us to be quiet when we all let out a collective gasp at our first glimpse of the startlingly expansive bridge that Tazuna had designed, and was the foreman of.

We were perpetually shrouded in mist during our journey across the strait between Fire and Wave countries, which, oddly, seemed only to get thicker as we got closer to Wave. This seemed to make Kakashi oddly apprehensive and nervous, which worried me as well. Anything that could worry a ninja who is at least an A rank threat to his enemies was something well worth the time for me to worry about. Kakashi grew even more nervous after we disembarked from the boat, constantly glancing around suspiciously, which team Seven started to notice as well.

By the time that we were starting to near Tazuna's house, we were so on edge that when a leaf rustled, four kunai all collided against each other at that spot, shredding through several branches of the bush, revealing that what we had really heard was just a rabbit. I ran over to it quickly, dreading the idea that we possibly might have hurt an innocent animal. I scooped it up in my arms, checking it over for injuries, before I heard Sasuke's question behind me. "It's summer, why does that rabbit still have it's white winter fur?" Kakashi realized our error very quickly, yelling at his team to take up a formation around Tazuna, before I heard a slight whistling approaching me from behind, making me turn to the sound.

I spun around just in time to stare down the biggest fucking sword I had seen in my life as it hurtled towards my face at impossible speeds for a sword that size. Unfortunately, it was going just fast enough, and I was just slow enough to react to not be able to dodge in time, before I heard a very loud clang, then a much louder thunking noise off to my left, as, thankfully, Kakashi was able to jump in front of me, deflecting the impossibly fast sword away from me, and into a sword just over ten feet away from me.

I turned to my left to watch as a man, dressed as a Kiri jonin minus the flak jacket, landed next to the sword, and, instead of pulling the sword out of the tree, pulled it through the tree with an impressive show of brute strength, severing the tree in half. "So, looks like I got myself a good haul today, four Genin, and the Copycat Ninja Kakashi Hatake. I might just about enjoy this."

 **Hey guys, I know this chapter has been long awaited, but life has a way of fucking you over sometimes, and by life, I mean that, between school starting back up, work, and a myriad of other factors, I have had very little time to write. Anyway, we're finally starting along the Naruto storyline with the Wave arc. Thanks for reading my story, and if you read my little notes, you get a digital cookie from the digital darkside. I hear they have cake now, too, so, have fun with that. Any questions, comments, and suggestions can be directed towards that fun little button that says review. I hope you guys enjoyed the extra long chapter in apology for taking so long to upload. Remember, it's never goodbye, just see you soon. PEACE!**


	5. Chapter 5

**Hey guys! Good to see you guys again! I don't own Naruto, and the odds of me ever owning it are the same as the odds that I'll win the Powerball. I hope you guys are having a nice day, and that you enjoy the chapter. I don't have anything else to say, sooo, have fun reading.**

 _Previously:_

 _I turned to my left to watch as a man, dressed as a Kiri jonin minus the flak jacket, landed next to the sword, and, instead of pulling the sword out of the tree, pulled it through the tree with an impressive show of brute strength, severing the tree in half. "So, looks like I got myself a good haul today, four Genin, and the Copycat Ninja Kakashi Hatake. I might just about enjoy this."_

I was scared. If Kakashi hadn't stepped in, I would be missing a rather important part of my anatomy. Most people do need a head to properly function, after all. On top of that, it wasn't even from a man manually decapitating me, but rather CHUCKING his monstrously large sword at my fucking HEAD! AND THEN HE RIPPED THROUGH A TREE! This man, who I didn't even know the name of, had already scared me more than I have been in my entire life, excepting when I was literally dying after being stabbed. I quickly dropped the rabbit that I was holding before turning all the way around, eyes wide, and still in a crouch, before looking up at Kakashi as he began to talk, reciting something from his memory.

"Zabuza Momochi, Demon of the Hidden Mist. Killed his entire graduating class of the Ninja Academy in Kirigakure. Recruited to join the Seven Swordsmen of Kirigakure, and wields the Kubikiribocho, the Executioner's Blade. Exiled from Kiri after a failed assassination attempt on the Mizukage's life, and labeled a nukenin. Master of the Kirigakure no Jutsu, among many other water type jutsus. The undisputed master of the Silent Killing assassination technique, outstripping even his fellow Swordsmen. Kenjutsu master, and known associate of the Demon Brothers. Engagement advice: all high ranked Jonin are to kill on sight, if capable. You have a rather large bounty on your head, posted by the Mizukage." Kakashi said all of this rather calmly, considering the man's clearly very impressive biography, and even lowered his kunai a fraction, to turn to me. "Jeremiah, my team will protect Tazuna. I want you to back me up in this fight. I have not fought a true kenjutsu master in quite some time, and if he uses the Kirigakure no Jutsu, your aid will be greatly appreciated to pressure him, and keep him on the defensive. If he can get an upper hand on us, he could slip past my team and kill Tazuna, and I don't want to take that chance."

I looked up at him, my worry clearly bleeding into my eyes, becoming very apparent to Kakashi. "Don't worry, you'll only be backup, I'll be the one actually fighting him up front. Use any ranged attacks you can, and jump in with surprise attacks if you see an opening." I nodded, straightening up, as mist started to spread across the ground toward us, at roughly ankle level, but rapidly ascending to my head level by the time it reached Kakashi and I, and completely encompassed us a little over a second later, completely obscuring our vision. Kakashi, still facing away from me, pulled his headband up, before cursing under his breath, as Zabuza's voice rang ominously from across the clearing.

"Kirigakure no Jutsu, complete. Kakashi of the Sharingan, master of a thousand jutsus, also known as the Copycat Ninja. The only survivor of your Genin team, trained by the Fourth Hokage. Made Chunin at age 6, and Jonin at age 9. No additional info other than that you are a master of lightning jutsu. Also a kill on sight order for Jonin. Interesting." With that said, Kakashi quickly pulled out a second kunai just in time to block a sword strike which pushed him back several feet. I turned back to look at him, confused by the rather obvious red left eye, safely presuming it to be the Sharingan that Zabuza talked about a moment ago. His gaze snapped to the space over my right shoulder, charging forward, yelling at me as he moved. "MOVE, Jeremiah!" His cry startled me out of my thoughts, causing me to draw my katana quickly, before using my special shunshin to blink to where Kakashi was after Zabuza's first swing, and turned to see Kakashi holding Zabuza and his sword back from bisecting him. Remembering Kakashi's orders to me, I shook my head quickly to focus myself.

I rushed forward, blinking behind Zabuza, swinging for his waist, blinking my eyes slightly in surprise to find that he simply leaped over Kakashi's head, using my sword as a surface to push off of, to propel him towards Tazuna, summarily both dodging my attack, and advancing past Kakashi. Kakashi and I quickly sprinted for Tazuna and team Seven's position, Kakashi quickly pulling ahead, despite my shunshin. I arrived in time to see Zabuza finish off the last couple of, what had likely once been, several dozen Narutos, a slight smirk present on Zabuza's face. Kakashi, with a surprise attack, was able to barrel into Zabuza, slide tackling his feet out from under him, as I blinked forward, drop kicking him out of the air, pushing him several feet away from Tazuna, towards the coastline we had been walking along to reach Tazuna's house. Zabuza quickly righted himself, planting himself on the ground of the coastline, before jumping back slightly onto the turbulent water, and making five water clones, before speeding through hand seals, before yelling out "Suiton: Daibakufu no Jutsu!" A large column of water rose up from behind Zabuza, before it started to descend towards Kakashi, who flashed through some handsigns of his own, as two shadow clones popped into existence to either side of him. His clones performed their own jutsu, as lightning chakra encased one of their hands each, and a chain of lightning formed between them. The clones jumped straight up towards the water column, the lightning chakra between them cutting it in half, causing large walls of water to fall in front and behind Kakashi and me. As this happened, Kakashi shot a fireball out of his mouth, creating an opening in the water behind us large enough for us to escape through. Kakashi and I quickly dashed towards the clones with a dozen Naruto clones lining up on the shoreline to back us up, if need be. Thankfully, the mist seemed to be clearing slightly, taking with it my doubts about how well Kakashi and I would do in this fight. I blinked behind two clones in rapid succession, flicking my blade slightly to rid it of the water clinging to it, as the clones burst. I turned in time to see Kakashi kill two other clones as Naruto's clones were able to distract the fifth enough when it reached land that team Seven were all able to land kunai on it. Zabuza summoned six more of the clones, before seeming to channel more chakra, as the mist thickened around us rapidly.

I sheathed my sword and sped through some hand signs quickly before using Raiton no Jutsu four times on the clones mindlessly rushing towards Tazuna and team Seven, before finishing off the final two that were being swarmed by Naruto clones, blinking near them, and quickly delivering a solid punch to them from behind, while they were distracted. I looked around frantically, trying to locate Kakashi in the fog, becoming a bit earnest in my search before I took a moment to compose myself, quickly locating the sounds of kunai and giant ass sword impacting each other. Zabuza had seemingly been forced back on shore somehow by Kakashi, likely with some help from Naruto's clones, and shuriken from Sasuke and Sakura. I blinked towards their position, speeding through more handsigns as I blinked again to Zabuza's side as I activated Raiton: Jibashi, quickly slapping my electrified palms onto his left thigh, causing it to spasm and give out under his weight. I stepped to the side as the very large man collapsed onto the ground as the electrical paralyzation spread down his leg, and through the rest of his body. Kakashi raised his kunai to finish Zabuza off, breathing heavily after his extended engagement with an equally skilled opponent, while fighting with a heavy handicap.

However, before Kakashi's kunai could fall, several senbon entered Zabuza's neck silently. Confused, I looked to Kakashi, who seemed as intrigued as I was as the mist around us faded. A ninja jumped down from the trees above us, wearing a long sleeved, high collared, brown shirt under a blue kimono, with pants matching their shirt, and sandals. The ninja turned around to face us, after examining Zabuza's body for a moment, revealing that they wore a Anbu mask, with a simple red strand of color, curling in on itself towards the center of the mask, and the symbol of Kirigakure at the top of the mask. "Thank you, you have made my job significantly easier. I'm a Kirigakure hunter ninja, I have been following him for several days, waiting for an opportune moment to strike." The ninja spoke surprisingly softly, and sounded almost feminine in timbre and pitch. Team Seven approached us from behind as the hunter ninja was talking, allowing to hear everything the hunter ninja said. Kakashi was looking at the hunter ninja suspiciously, before nodding gruffly, "Well, you're welcome. You're free to go about your business." The hunter ninja shook their head slightly saying, "I'll be taking Zabuza's body with me." Giving Kakashi no time to say anything else, the hunter ninja scooped up the body and sped off with it into the forest.

Kakashi looked at me, before pulling his headband down over his left eye, and turning to face team Seven, and also Sasuke's accusatory glare. "He'll be back. Except next time, he and Zabuza will be fighting together." Kakashi stated this rather simply, looking displeased on the results of the, admittedly, seemingly rather short, fight. "How do you figure?" I asked, concerned about having face Zabuza again, especially after he had proven how strong he is. But, instead of Kakashi responding, Sasuke instead responded from behind me. "Hunter ninja are taught, and it is universal practice and procedure, to decapitate the bodies of the ninja they kill, and burn everything but the head and any defining gear."

I blinked lightly, and turned to Sasuke. "Oh, well, thank you very much." Sasuke simply looked at me, grunting softly as he nodded. Sasuke and I had never really talked when we were in the academy, mostly because neither of us had made much of an effort to reach out and talk to each other. "Sooo, we're going to have to fight Zabuza again? And that fake hunter ninja too? But just Zabuza was a struggle for us to fight, and he didn't even seem like he used his best Jutsus yet!" As I was speaking, the level of my voice slowly started to rise, until by the end I was practically screaming. "We also know literally nothing about his friend! How are we supposed to fight that?" It wasn't necessarily obvious on my face, with my mask covering most of it, but I was actually becoming a little frantic and scared. Naruto, thankfully, can always be counted on to bring people back down when they start freaking out. Unfortunately, his methods, now more than in the academy, tend to be a bit violent. Which is how I found myself with my face stuck into the ground moments after I stopped talking, as a result of Naruto quickly and decisively smacking me on the back of my head.

I stood up, taking my mask off to wipe mud off of it carefully. I looked at Naruto, who was quite obviously fuming. "It doesn't matter whether or not we have a legitimate chance of winning that fight! We're going to train like mad, and when they come back to challenge us again, we're going to kick their asses! And it won't matter if we get knocked down! We'll stand back up and walk! We'll keep moving forward, because we've each got two good legs, so we have to use them. We have to be strong enough to make our own paths, to overcome the obstacles on that path, and right now, Zabuza and that hunter ninja are the biggest fucking obstacles we have right now. So come on, Jeremiah, we'll need you if we want to make it through this." By the end of his little speech, Naruto didn't even seem angry anymore, just wildly and bafflingly determined. He extended his hand to me, which I quickly clasped in my own, as we smiled at each other, then at the rest of team Seven, our determination newly bolstered. Naruto might seem dumb, but he always to seems to drop the facade whenever his friends really needed him. I'm glad that he was here, otherwise I probably would have freaked out way worse, which could have negatively impacted the mission. Regardless, I finally felt like I had a group of people who accepted me, which might seem slightly naive, but Naruto and I obviously already got along, and had accepted that we each had our burdens, Kakashi and I seemed to work together well, and he seemed to at least accept me. On top of all of this, Sasuke didn't seem to actively hate or look down upon me, like he seemed to do to everyone else, and Sasuke's opinions are shared by Sakura. Ever since I had been run out of my village, I had been searching for somewhere where I could feel like I belonged, and the fact that I had found that made my face break into a smile stretching from ear to ear.

"Sorry to break this up, but we have to get Tazuna to his house soon, the sun is starting to go down." Kakashi said this from behind his strange book, his headband replaced to cover his Sharingan, looking heavily fatigued after fighting toe to toe with Zabuza for what probably felt like forever, as he started to head off with Tazuna at a very slow pace, not waiting for us to follow. Naruto and I smiled at each other again before I smiled at Sasuke and Sakura, and saw Sakura smile back, and Sasuke incline his head slightly to acknowledge me. I replaced my mask as we followed Kakashi and Tazuna at their leisurely pace.

-Line Break-

Tazuna was the first in the door of his house. It wasn't a particularly clean, large, or ornate house, but it didn't need to be. Although it was slightly run down, it had a feel of home about it that my apartment in Konoha severely lacked. Kakashi followed Tazuna in, and was followed by Sasuke, Sakura, Naruto, and I was the last in the door. The first thing I noticed was that the kitchen that was to our left, though looking a little old and worn, was still very clean, almost pristine. Altogether, the kitchen was a very good reflection of the parts of the house that I could see from my position, standing awkwardly in the doorway. For the most part, though obviously well-used, everything in the house was still in the best possible condition that Tazuna could keep it in.

"Ah, Tsunami, there you are!" Tazuna said, as a young woman descended from the upper level of the house, smiling kindly. She wasn't spectacularly beautiful, nor was she ugly. She radiated this quiet motherly aura that seemed to comfort you, just by being around her. She was followed moments later by a small boy that she introduced as her son, Inari, and who looked exceedingly depressed. He wore a hat that drooped down to almost cover his eyes, which only served to make him seem even less approachable. Team Seven and I were in high spirits after thwarting Zabuza for the time being, and thus were very chatty with Tsunami and Tazuna as we sat at the table, eating the dinner that we had arrived just in time for. Sasuke, Kakashi and I noticed, however, that while Tazuna and Tsunami seemed happy for our presence and aid, the boy only seemed to become angrier as we sat there. Finally, as Naruto and I helped Tsunami clear the dishes, he finally burst, yelling at us in his anger, and startling his mother enough to make her drop the dishes, which Kakashi caught without even looking up from his book. "Why are you even here! You won't be able to do anything! You're all just going to be useless! No matter what you do, no matter how hard you train, Gato will kill you, just like he's killed everyone else! You don't know anything about what the people here go through, so how can you expect to be able to help us?!" He stood up so abruptly that he knocked his chair over, which caused a loud cracking noise as it hit the ground. My hands clenched around the dishes I had, barely restraining the anger that bubbled up inside, very aware of a similar reaction occurring with Naruto, which was held back only by the fact that Sasuke reacted before Naruto or I could, staring Inari down from across the table with his onyx eyes, which right now resembled pits of blackness, rather than a person's eyes. "You're a fool. A sad, beaten, submissive, fool." With these words, Sasuke shook his head slowly, looking around the room, making eye contact with everyone but Inari, before staring him down again. "It doesn't matter whether we really stand a chance of winning or not. We're going to fight, no matter what. Because all of us here have known hardship, but we refuse to let that pull us down, and until you can embrace the difficulties you've gone through, and move on in spite of them, you will never be anything more than a sad fool." With that, Sasuke stood up from his chair, and headed to the stairs, before stopping for a moment to ask, "Tsunami-san, you said that we would be in the first room on the right?" At her nod, he continued up the stairs, disappearing seconds later.

I put the dishes in the sink next to the ones Naruto had just placed down. I nodded to everyone but Inari, bidding them goodnight, before following Sasuke upstairs. I sat down across the room from him, on one of the four beds in the room, as Sakura would be rooming with Tsunami while we were in Wave. "You know, I didn't expect that you would be the one to say anything to Inari. I expected it to be Naruto. I guess what he said hit harder than I thought for you." Sasuke looked up at me, "Well, you and Naruto looked about ready to kill the boy, so I thought I could head it off before anything happened. It just so happened that what he said did make me a little bit angry, I suppose, not that I would ever admit that to anyone." He said this all with a slight smirk on his face. I smiled at him, "Yeah, that famous 'Uchiha Pride' that I've heard about, huh? Must be a real struggle for you to deal with, acting so aloof all the time, not being affected by anything that happens around you." My smile grew wider as I saw his eyes roll, clearly exasperated by me already. My smile fell a bit as I decided to get a bit more serious. "What part of it got to you? You can try to hide it, but you were very angry because of what Inari said."

Sasuke looked down to the floor, probably trying to think of how to say what he wanted to say, before looking back up at me, his lips pursed slightly. "You know that my entire family was killed by my bastard of a brother?" He said this with a strained voice, signaling that this was something he very much did not enjoy talking about. When I nodded, he closed his eyes, and buried his head in his hands. "I was there. I know people think I wasn't, but I arrived just in time to watch as my brother slew my parents, each with a single strike. There was nothing I could do. Nothing. In that moment, I was completely and utterly useless. I refuse to feel useless again, and I will never tolerate someone saying that I am. Naruto, Sakura, and I have been training ourselves into the ground for the last three months. Everyday, I went to bed completely drained, and I will not acknowledge that was all a useless venture." I realized that the sadness and emptiness I was feeling were out of sympathy and empathy for Sasuke, who had barely known his family.

Moments after Sasuke finished talking, Kakashi and Naruto joined Sasuke and I inside the room. Kakashi looked us all up and down, before speaking. "Tomorrow, we will begin training for Zabuza's return, which I estimate to take a week or so. Naruto and Sasuke, you will be joining Sakura to learn to water-walk. Jeremiah, we'll likely just work on helping you with any other elements besides Raiton. Goodnight you three, get a good night's rest for tomorrow's training. It will be intense. When we had all lain down, Kakashi flicked the light switch, pitching us into pitch black darkness. Minutes later, the calming repetitiveness of Naruto's breathing very slow set me to sleep, sending me into the inky blackness of sleep.

 **Hey, guys, thanks for reading, don't forget to review, favorite, and follow. All of you should go check out my buddy's story. His pen name is Bulba Fett, and his story is called Oracle, and is quite good.**

 **He and I will be starting a collaborative story, that I think will show up on only his profile. All current information for that story can be found in the most recent chapter of his story, so go check that out, the story we will be starting will be called 'The Caged Bird', and will be a NaruHina story. See you guys in the next chapter, I'll hopefully have it up later this week. PEACE!**


	6. Chapter 6

**Hello, again, all. Good to see you back. I don't own many things, I own an xbox one, a 3ds, various video and board games, too many books, and some movies. But, I do not, and likely never will, own Naruto, however unfortunate that may be. Anyway, on with the chapter, I hope you all enjoy!**

 _ **Previously:**_

 _Kakashi looked us all up and down, before speaking. "Tomorrow, we will begin training for Zabuza's return, which I estimate to take a week or so. Naruto and Sasuke, you will be joining Sakura to learn to water-walk. Jeremiah, we'll likely just work on helping you with any other elements besides Raiton. Goodnight you three, get a good night's rest for tomorrow's training. It will be intense. When we had all lain down, Kakashi flicked the light switch, pitching us into pitch black darkness. Minutes later, the calming repetitiveness of Naruto's breathing very slow set me to sleep, sending me into the inky blackness of sleep._

I was shocked from my sleep by Kakashi slamming a pair of garbage can lids together repeatedly. I shot up, slipping my mask onto my face, pulling a kunai from under my pillow, looking around wildly to find Kakashi standing in the door, laughing his ass off at Sasuke's, Naruto's, and my reactions. Kakashi quickly sobered, however, as he told us, "Well, now that I've had my fun, come downstairs in less than ten minutes for breakfast. After that, we'll all be training." With that, he turned around, and headed downstairs. Sasuke, Naruto, and I quickly corrected our state of dress, or, rather, the lack thereof, and followed Kakashi downstairs, making it into the kitchen just in time to see him put his plate in the sink. Without turning to look at us, or Sakura right behind us, Kakashi said, "Meet me outside in ten minutes. You'll all train for the day while I escort Tazuna to the bridge while he works."

We all sped through our meals as fast as we could, thanking Tsunami, before sprinting out the door at full speed. I spotted Kakashi almost the second I stepped out the door, and sprinted off to the left, downriver from the house. I blinked halfway there, before slowing down and skidding to a stop in front of Kakashi. I was joined moments later by Sasuke and Naruto, followed very closely by Sakura. Kakashi looked us appraisingly, before smiling. "Team Seven, I know you all have already mastered the tree walking exercise, and now is the best time for you guys to learn the next step up. Because of the abundance of water around us, the next step is, as I have already told you, water walking. Now, this is significantly harder than tree walking, because, well, the surface of the water is constantly shifting, and you have to alter your chakra constantly to adapt to that. Jeremiah, we'll leave them to their work, come with me for now." I followed Kakashi around the house to the other side, getting close to the forest. Kakashi stopped and turned around to face me as we finally reached the edge of the trees. "I can tell that you have already mastered at least two lightning jutsus, and you clearly have altered the standard shunshin, with what I can only assume to be lightning chakra. I don't know who taught you this, but they should not have taught this to a Genin. So, how much elemental chakra manipulation practice have you done?"

I felt my anger slowly rising as he spoke, and I started taking long deep breaths to calm myself down, waiting a moment before I responded to him. "Kakashi-sensei, for the most part, my elemental chakra training was a result of my own efforts. I mean, who's going to help some foreign kid, who only moved here a couple years ago, get scrolls from the third floor of the shinobi library? Certainly no Chunin who was hoping to rise in the ranks ever. Getting scrolls for an academy student is an almost guaranteed way to get booted from the shinobi corps. And I have no parents to sign for me, to verify that I have their permission to get out higher level scrolls. No academy instructors are going to take the time to help out a prospective genin for no reason other than just from the good of their heart. The only person who has ever personally taken the time to teach me anything has been Cat-sensei, and I would appreciate it if you didn't insult my skill or Cat-sensei's judgment ability." Partway through my tirade, I took another step closer to Kakashi, forgetting that he is a Jonin, and more than capable of taking me apart in moments. He did seem to react minimally when I mentioned Cat-sensei, but I assumed that it was just simply the same slight fear that everybody I had met seemed to react with when Anbu were mentioned. Very quickly, however, his visible eye zeroed back in on me, and the pressure of the air grew as he flared his chakra slightly to cut me off, as I took a small step back from fear of accidentally inciting his fury.

"I was questioning neither your ability, nor your sensei's. However, you never answered my question, did you?" Kakashi's visible eyebrow rose questioningly, as if almost daring me to somehow be offended by my own oversight. Sufficiently cowed, I hung my head for a moment, before raising it again to meet his gaze. "No, Kakashi-san, I did not answer your question. I have only completed the leaf exercise, and beyond that, I don't know what the traditional chakra training is for elemental chakra. For lightning chakra, I have been setting up kunai at increasing distances away from me, and bouncing lightning from my hand to the kunai and catching it in my other hand on the rebound. From there, I transfer it between my hands, and repeat the process. With wind chakra, I have been trying to cut things like sticks, but I haven't practiced with wind chakra since I graduated the academy. I also haven't practiced earth chakra since graduating, but I have been trying to pull solid cylinders of dirt straight up while it's attached to my palm, but they usually crumble very quickly. I can't do anything with fire and water chakra beyond the leaf exercise, and even that took a full day for me to be able to reach that point with each of those chakras."

Kakashi nodded slowly, looking at me with in such a way that might even seem appraising on a normal person, but it was impossible to tell on him. "Continuing with fire and water chakra, for you, would probably just be a waste of time for now. Wind and earth chakra should wait until at least after you reach Chunin. Lightning chakra, however, you obviously show a lot of promise with, and we will continue down that training path until you have mastered it." After I nodded to show him that I understood, he told me to step back several feet. After I had retreated to a safe distance, Kakashi ran through some hand signs before holding his right hand away from his body as it seemingly exploded in bright blue, almost white, lightning. He stood there, holding the jutsu, as lightning arced away from his hand occasionally, burning small spots on the grass, and creating small divots in the trees nearest to him. After what seemed to be an eternity, Kakashi shot towards a tree off to his left, away from me. My eyes widened and my jaw dropped as I saw his arm punch clean through a tree that was easily about a foot and a half in diameter, before he released the lightning chakra, and it exploded outward, no longer under his direction, as the stray bolts burned several inches into the trees they landed on.

Kakashi pulled his arm out of the hole he had made before dusting it off to clear it of sawdust. He turned around to meet my gaze, walking back towards me at his usual leisurely pace. "That, Jeremiah, is the only jutsu that I know that I created. I have seen only one example of superior lightning chakra control, and that was by Kumogakure's Raikage, A, who can cover his entire body with lightning chakra with no damage to himself, without seals, which augments his own already impressive natural abilities. That combination itself is called nintaijutsu, but that lesson is something that few ninja can successfully learn, and is not something anyone below high Jonin rank should attempt. However, that jutsu I just demonstrated will be your goal by the end of the week. Not that specific jutsu, but more likely a weaker, but still dangerous, jutsu. I use hand seals to allow myself better control over my chakra for that jutsu, but I can now perform the jutsu you will learn without the aide hand seals." To demonstrate, he gathered what looked to be a ball of lightning chakra in his palm, before letting it dissipate into the air. "To be able to attempt either jutsu, however, you must have perfect control over your lightning chakra if you don't want them to drain you completely after even two uses. So, to start, you will gather lightning chakra in your palms, just enough to cover the palms of your hands. When you are able to do this without burning yourself, and ideally with as little chakra drain as reasonably possible, we will move on to the next step." With that, Kakashi walked off to join up with Tazuna as he stepped out of the front door, waving back to me as a farewell.

Before Kakashi was even out of sight, I had already started practicing. I channeled chakra to just my right palm, before changing it to lightning chakra. I held it there for a few moments before the lightning chakra escaped my control, and shocked my hand violently, forcing me to release my chakra. After several more hours of failure, and repeatedly growing too agitated to properly control my chakra, I crouched down for a moment, trying to think about anything that I may have been doing wrong. I quickly recalled the jutsu Cat-sensei had taught me, Raiton: Jibashi, and started comparing the jutsu to the chakra control exercise only to realize that the only difference between the two was the amount of chakra I was channeling into them. At this realization, I performed Raiton: Jibashi several times in a row, just to get a feel for how the chakra channeling felt, until I was sure that I could replicate the feel.

The seals for the jutsu allowed me to focus my chakra and my intent enough to change the nature of my chakra to lightning even before it left my body, and because of the nature change happening inside of my body, my body was already acclimated to the chakra, since it's my own chakra. Also, the seals changed all of the chakra inside of me to lightning chakra for the duration of the jutsu, so I didn't have to actively change the nature of my own chakra. Thus, since my concentration wasn't divided between controlling the chakra as it emerged, and also changing the nature at the same time, my control over the chakra allowed me to easily contain it to my palm without sparks shooting off my palm with little effort, although the technique was, for now, significantly weaker without the use of seals. I was beginning to see what Kakashi meant with how difficult his jutsu would be. It was already noon, and the team Seven Genin were beginning to head back inside Tazuna's house. 'Huh, I must have missed Tsunami calling us all inside for lunch. Guess I'll join them, not like I'll accomplish much on an empty stomach.'

Once inside, I was greeted to the wonderful smells of Tsunami's cooking, which today would consist of some vegetables, rice, and apples, and although they were the cheapest one could buy, Tsunami still made them taste as if they were made in an expensive restaurant. Inari joined us, but only towards the end of our meal, as team Seven and I were about to walk out the door, which helped us all avoid any confrontations we might have had with him.

I waved to Naruto as he sprinted off around the house to continue his training before I stopped Sasuke momentarily. As I pulled my mask back onto my face after taking it off for dinner, I asked Sasuke, "How's your training been going?" In true Sasuke fashion, he simply responded with an exasperated grunt and a shake of his head before he and Sakura walked off to join Naruto by the river. I watched them leave before turning back towards the forest to continue my practice.

 **The Next Day, very late afternoon:**

Kakashi was no help to me at all. I asked him on how I could possibly work to be able to channel more chakra through my hand to make my technique closer in power to Raiton: Jibashi, but he simply just shrugged his shoulders good naturedly before he patted me on my head, saying "I'm sure you'll figure it out." But I haven't. I know, logically, that progress on a jutsu that is exactly as difficult as it seems is going to take time, but, I'm still infuriated by my lack of progress. I have practiced for all of yesterday and today, and yet I continue to be burned or shocked by the lightning chakra, regardless of how and when I change the nature, and regardless of how I mold it. I've tried creating a ball of lightning in my palm, sheathing my entire hand in lightning, so that it resembled a blade, and simply having it cover my palm, but none of them seem to change anything. The chakra always rebounds, sometimes quite violently, shocking me minorly before it destabilizes, and bursts out of my control.

Frustrated by my lack of progress, I finally snapped a bit, and, before I really realized what I was doing, sheathed my fist in lightning chakra before punching a tree, releasing it all in one violent burst away from my hand, vaporizing a solid hole through the tree, before it landed on Naruto, who had just walked up behind the tree. Naruto was blown back, ragdolling through the air, before hitting another tree, and, thankfully, bursting apart into smoke.

The real Naruto arrived only moments later, infuriated. "Why the hell did you hit my clone? He was just coming to tell you that Kakashi and Tazuna are back, which means it's dinner time. Why do you have to be so mad right before dinner?"

I blinked owlishly, confused, my earlier frustration quickly forgotten. "How'd you know I broke your clone? You weren't here, were you?" "No, I was Tazuna's house." Naruto, now equally confused, tilted his head to the side, before declaring loudly, "I have an idea!" His hands formed a cross, and another Naruto formed, accompanied by a gratuitous amount of smoke. "You and my clone go a little farther into the forest, you do something, and burst my clone." At my nod, the clone and I walked about thirty feet away from the real Naruto, before I looked at the clone, before holding my fist out. "Let's do Rock, Paper, Scissors." At the clones nod, we started, and I punched the clone after getting beaten in best of three, five, seven, and nine, without winning a single one.

I walked back to Naruto, annoyed by his uncanny luck, only to see him beaming gloatingly. "Nah, nah, you suck at Rock, Paper, Scissors." Seeing my already infuriated expression, he stopped gloating, and starting looking more pensive. "I think that when one of my clones breaks, I get their memories. I bet, that the more clones I have, the more memories I'll get. This will be the best training tool ever!" By the end, Naruto was looking absolutely ecstatic, before his expression fell slightly when I spoke up. "Still, I think you should talk to Kakashi about it before you use it for that purpose. He's a Jonin, so he's sure to know about Kage Bunshin, and there might be risks to that use that you don't know about yet, that he does." Naruto, seeing the sense in my words, nodded pensively. "Alright, I'll go ask him during dinner." With that said, he and I turned and made our way to Tazuna's house.

Kakashi, in what I had come to realize to be common style for him, gave Naruto a half answer, not quite confirming what Naruto had discovered about the clones, but not denying it, either. He simply gave the warning, "If one were to gain the memories of their clones, that person should not dispel too many clones all at once, for the resulting memory influx could, well, destroy their brain." With that said, Naruto stayed quiet for the entirety of dinner, until he, Sasuke, and I went back outside to train after dinner.

Instead of training with my lightning affinity like earlier in the day, this evening training took on another form. I instead brought my weights out, strapping them around my shins and forearms, before increasing their weight by channeling chakra into them, like all shinobi training weights, until they weighed the same as what I practiced with before we left Konoha, and going through my taijutsu and kenjutsu katas until I had reacquainted my body to the feeling of training weights. I then pushed a tiny amount of chakra into the seals on the weights, increasing them by three pounds each, pushing them each just over 150 kilograms. **( That's about 330.7 pounds. For comparison, Rock Lee's weights, in the Chunin Exams, have been estimated to be upwards of 4600 kilos on each band. That's about 10,000 pounds. Yeah. Lee's a freak.)** The added weight slowed me down just enough for my katas to be just a little bit too slow for my taste, which meant that they were in a good place, for training use, at least. Naruto and Sasuke, meanwhile, were trying to keep from falling into water, and also walk across the water at the same time, which mild success, both of them falling in every once in awhile, but they were, gratefully, just in the shallow water.

We trained separately for several hours, before Naruto and Sasuke got very annoyed by their inability to stay on top of the water for more than thirty seconds for Sasuke, and twenty seconds for Naruto. After that, Sasuke, Naruto and I sparred on the outskirts of the forest for about a total of two hours, until well after dark, the increase on my weights making the fights fairly equal, in terms of speed. When we all grew too tired to stay conscious, Sasuke, Naruto, and I all sat down at the bottom of a tree. I leaned my head back against the tree, pulling my mask off, letting the cool breeze waft across the lower half of my face, sighing softly. All was quiet until the quiet inquiry from Naruto broke it, sounding significantly more energetic than I felt. "So that Anbu that was with you in the Hokage's office, was she your sensei?"

"Still is, I think. At least, when I'm not on missions with other Genin. The Hokage wanted me to be a sort of insurance policy during high level missions, since we had one too many people pass the genin exams to split us all up into teams of three. So, the Hokage put you guys on a team together, with Sakura, and I got thrown into a three month Anbu training crash course. I only have my mask because my sensei's old mask broke, so Cat-sensei decided to give me the broken one, for some reason." Sasuke looked at me, almost appraisingly, before he spoke up himself. "That must have been hard. Anbu training is all day, right?" At my nod, he grunted slightly, nodded, before continuing. "Kakashi-sensei has us doing missions for half the day, so we don't train as much as Naruto and I would like, but we are at least training longer and harder than the other Genin teams. I guess that's why we got a C rank before any of the others did. We do chakra control exercises like water walking every day, but it's mostly tree running until we exhaust ourselves. We do a lot of taijutsu only sparring, too. Kakashi doesn't seem too concerned with our ninjutsu skills right now, except for Sakura." Naruto chose this moment to speak up, almost startlingly me, because he had been so quiet that I almost forgot he was there. "Why did you guys get so mad at Inari the other day. I know why I got mad, but you both seemed to get as mad or madder than I was. Why is that?"

I was so surprised by the question, I almost forgot that it was directed at both Sasuke and I. It was quiet for a really long time, weighing down on us. Probably close to ten minutes or so, before I even opened my mouth to talk. "About three months before I arrived in Konoha, my father, likely the only adult I knew and trusted in my village, suddenly, while I was sleeping, decided to try to kill me. I woke up to the worst pain I have ever experienced, as the end of the knife poked out of my back. As my dad turned his back on me, he took the knife with him, pulling it out as he took a step away from me, and out the door. There were a few moments where I was sure I was going to die. I tied a blanket around my chest as tight as I could, accidentally breaking at least two ribs in an effort to stop the bleeding. The pain of my stab wound, with broken ribs on top of it, resulted in me passing out almost immediately after the blanket was secure. I woke up over half of a day later, to a Kirigakure Anbu standing over me, as I felt an itching sensation in my chest as my lung pulled itself back together. Then, a number of snaps rang out through the air, accompanied by a whole new wave of pain as what felt like all of my ribs were wrenched violently back into their proper position. I woke up roughly three hours after that to a very large scab on my front and back where the knife ran me through. The next month, roughly, waiting for my scabs and ribs to heal, was the one time, where, no matter how I think about it, I was a drain on another person, and utterly useless. I relied entirely on my neighbor Takashi-san, who was the one person who didn't outright refuse to talk to me, like the rest of my village did. I later learned that they hated me for the fact that my father left the village with a yellow eyed man, but no one would ever tell me why they hated him, just that they assumed that I would join the yellow eyed man as well. When I fully recovered, I found that, when I molded chakra like Takashi-san showed me, a seal array shows up on my chest where my father stabbed me, which I assume was how the Anbu was able to save, and when I recovered enough that I could mold chakra for ten minutes, I left. I was a drain on my village, with no opportunity to improve myself to be a help to myself and them. When I was very young, my father would always talk about Konoha shinobi that he treated during the Third Ninja War, and how they talked about Konoha as a place where a person could escape their past and build a life. So, my logical choice was to leave for Konoha, and the rest, as they say, is history."

I saw Sasuke nod his head slightly out of the corner of my eye, before he, too, decided to speak. "Well, you both know about the Uchiha Massacre?" I had arrived four years after the slaughter actually occurred, but even then, it was still a hot topic of conversation for the citizens of Konoha, especially since the 'Final Uchiha' was distinguishing himself quite significantly at the academy. Sasuke waited until Naruto and I had nodded our confirmation before he continued, "Not many people know this, and I just told Jeremiah this a couple days ago, but I was there on that day. I didn't watch the whole thing, and that was the worst part about it. I arrived far too late to even have a chance to help anybody. When I got there, my entire extended family, cousins, aunts, uncles, all lay dead in the streets or in their homes. It didn't look like any of them even stood a chance against that bastard. He cut them all down like they were common animals. And there was nothing I could do about it. And when I finally caught up to him, it was just in time for my mother to smile at me as she was decapitated, right before my father's eyes met mine as he died as well. Our parents, cut down in cold blood, and nothing I could do about it. I tried. I did. I tried to stop him, but he blocked my kunai like it was not even worth his attention, and put me under a genjutsu so strong I was in a coma for a week. That is the only time I ever felt truly useless. So Inari calling us useless… Well, it didn't exactly bring up things I care to remember." By the end of his story, Sasuke was staring up into the sky, as tears dripped down his cheeks, slowly falling to his lap.

"Those are both… shockingly depressing stories." Was all Naruto had to say on the matter, before evidently passing out. Whether he was faking or not, I didn't particularly care. Emotionally and physically drained from the day, Sasuke and I passed out, only to be woken suddenly by a loud, sudden, noise.

Jerking myself up to face the noise, I turned to find what I assumed to be a startlingly effeminate boy standing over Naruto, poking him on various parts of his body as Naruto looked quite panicked. The boy was wearing a light blue, paisley patterned, kimono, had long black hair that reached the middle of his back, dark brown eyes, and wore shinobi sandals, which is odd to see on a civilian. The boy smiled benevolently, before saying "You need more vitamin C. Eat this orange. Well, I've got all the herbs I needed. Goodbye." With that, he walked away, disappearing in the denser foliage deeper into the forest.

 **Well all, so glad you all read the chapter. I'm sorry this took so long for me to put out, but for whatever reason, I have rewritten this chapter about three different times, because I didn't like what I had done with it. So, the chapter you just read was my fourth attempt, and the only one that I felt remotely alright with putting out for you guys. I will always push back uploading a chapter, if it means that I can take the time to write you a better chapter. I hope you guys liked the chapter, and you guys should all go over to Bulba Fett's profile, to see the story he and I are collaborating on, it's called Caged Bird, and it updates every Sunday. While you're there, feel free to also check out his personal story The Oracle, he updates every day, and it's a pretty good story. Don't forget to review! As always, I'll see you guys in the next chapter. Anonymous Jonin out, PEACE!**


	7. Chapter 7

**HEY GUYS! WHAT'S UP! Welcome back to the story, I'm glad you guys came. As always, I don't own Naruto. Please review, I'd like to hear feedback about the story, so that I can make it better. As it is, I don't know what you guys like and don't like about the story, and the feedback you guys can give me will help me create a better written, and hopefully better overall, story. You guys are still great, though, so I hope you enjoy the chapter.**

 _Previously:_

 _Jerking myself up to face the noise, I turned to find what I assumed to be a startlingly effeminate boy standing over Naruto, poking him on various parts of his body as Naruto looked quite panicked. The boy was wearing a light blue, paisley patterned, kimono, had long black hair that reached the middle of his back, dark brown eyes, and wore shinobi sandals, which is odd to see on a civilian. The boy smiled benevolently, before saying "You need more vitamin C. Eat this orange. Well, I've got all the herbs I needed. Goodbye." With that, he walked away, disappearing in the denser foliage deeper into the forest._

"What the hell was that?" Sasuke didn't sound nearly as angry as I expected him to be. He was more perplexed than anything, staring into the forest after the boy, his brows furrowed, and his mouth in a slight frown. "I think he was a villager, but he was wearing odd shoes for a civilian. Shinobi sandals don't exactly come cheap, so there's no real reason for a run of the mill civ to have them." Disturbed by the ease with which the boy creeped up on us, even in our sleep, my response came out sounding more tentative than I really felt, causing Naruto to look over at me in concern, easily noting the concern on my face without my mask to hide it. I looked at him, my eyes darting down to the orange he still held onto. "You shouldn't eat that. If my theory is correct, that boy wasn't a civilian, but rather a full-fledged shinobi, and likely a hostile one at that. That orange could be poisoned."

Naruto sniffed the orange carefully, before tossing it off, deep into the forest. "Let's not mention this to Kakashi-sensei." At Sasuke and my confused expressions, Naruto decided to elaborate. "He'll berate us endlessly for, first, working ourselves to exhaustion on a mission, and second, being so tired that we slept too heavily to notice someone sneaking up on us, shinobi or not, especially since this whole country should be treated like a hostile area, with the level of influence Gato seems to have over this country." Seeing the sense behind Naruto's idea, Sasuke and I quickly agreed.

When we walked back to Tazuna's house, however, it was to find everybody in the house already up, including Inari, all staring at us when we walked in the door. Tsunami, Tazuna, and Sakura seemed to be relieved that we were alright, and Inari was his usually sullen self, but Kakashi seemed almost...gleeful? His visible eye held within it a barely contained mirth and mischief. "So, you three are so eager to improve that you'll work until the wee hours of the morn, eh?" Not waiting for a response from any of us, Kakashi continued on. "Well, fine then, you all can do all of your chakra training at night if you wish. Your days, from dusk to dawn, however, will be spent with Tazuna and I at the bridge. You three will do the same amount of work as the adults around you, without chakra to help you, or you will all train yourselves absolutely into the ground, and then train even more, when we get back to Konoha. I will get the Hokage to remove all three of you from active duty, so I can train you all personally. For the record, this will also hurt Sakura, as although she will not have to train with you, she won't be allowed to go on missions without a team or jonin-sensei. So you all better do your work. Hostile areas, or on missions in general, are not the place for intense physical training. Doing anything more taxing than the chakra training you all have been doing recently could leave you incapable of properly defending yourself or your allies. Remember that, for it is how a lot of over-eager genin die, and fast." With that, Kakashi stood up with Tazuna, walking past us out the door. "Get your breakfast, you'll eat on the way. Sakura, you are to stay here, and watch after Tsunami and Inari. Light chakra control exercises at most."

The day that followed was, and likely always be, the most physically taxing day in my life. Naruto, Sasuke, and I spent the day carrying beams of metal that were multiple times heavier than all of us combined, struggling heavily, only able to persevere through spite and the intense training we'd all been subject to before the mission. Naruto seemed to struggle significantly less than Sasuke and I, but I chalked that up to his limitless stamina. About thirty minutes into moving the beams, I released my chakra weights, sealing them into a scroll, which made the work significantly easier, but still only just barely doable. Before I released the weights, my knees would buckle constantly under the weight of the metal.

When the adult workers broke for lunch, we were allowed to rest as well, giving us an hour of reprieve to refuel before we continued to work until, by the end of the day, we were close to collapsing. Even Naruto seemed truly exhausted, something I had previously assumed to be something that couldn't happen. Dinner was consumed at an alarming rate by the three of us, food seeming to disappear the second it touched our plates. Sasuke and I ate at least double what we would normally consume, while Naruto's hunger seemed to exponentially increase, as he easily wolfed down over triple the amount of food I ate. After dinner, despite my desire to train, exhaustion won out in the end, enticing me towards the bed until I gave in, collapsing into it, as my brain drifted off into a world of dreams, or, more accurately, memories.

 _-In Dream-_

" _The boy should've died. Would've saved us all a hell of a lot of trouble." "He's only going to bring the Mizukage's wrath upon us. He's not worth it." "Too bad that bastard medic nin father of his was only good at saving lives, not taking them." These sentiments, and many others much like them, were muttered under people's breath, or whispered quietly to the person next to them. The glares and the suspicious glances often accompanied them, though some just seemed to be resigned, as though they had given up. No one would directly address me, except Takashi-san, but I think that he only talks to me because he feels obligated to. See, a couple years back, Takashi-san got really sick, and my father nursed him to convalescence, charging nothing for it. It was likely for this reason that Takashi-san allowed me to stay in his house while he helped me get better as fast as possible, and it is how I found myself standing in front of his door, fist poised to knock, and everything that I wanted to keep from my home inside of the bag on my back._

 _However, the door swung open inwards, revealing Takashi-san's stern face, with it's emotionlessly intelligent gray eyes, sharp bone structure, short black beard, and long black hair pulled into a low ponytail. At his towering 6'8" height, it was a struggle for me to make eye contact with the large blacksmith. He crossed his large arms over his barrel chest, grunting as he looked down at me. "So, it's finally that day, huh?" At my silence, he grunted again. "Look, kid, I know you're not popular here, but the option to be my apprentice still stands. I know it used to hinge on you making a full recovery, but that is obviously not a problem anymore. You don't have to go to Konoha." I shook my head vigorously, dispelling any thoughts of staying somewhere where I was hated so vehemently for something my father did. "No, I can't stay. I'm a burden to you and everyone else here. I'm useless. I promise that I will come back one day, hopefully soon, but I cannot, in good conscience, overstay a welcome, which unfortunately has already happened. Konoha is simply the best and first possible place to go to that will be large enough that I can hopefully find my path while I'm there. This is not goodbye, but rather see you soon, because I will, alright?" I finally looked up at Takashi, tears welling up in my eyes, at the thought of leaving behind the only person who had been kind to me recently. I nodded slowly, before hugging him forcefully, before quickly stepping away, turning my back to him. "Thank you so much. I will never be able to properly thank you for what you've done for me. I will return someday."_

 _With that, and without looking back, I walked away, wiping my eyes as I walked through the village, ignoring the looks the other villagers were giving me. When I finally reached the edge of the village, I turned around one last time, my fists clenched, and my head bowed. I looked down the main road of the village one last time, before I turned my back on my village, holding onto the straps of my backpack, and took, step by step, the road to what I hoped would be a world full of new and promising opportunities._

I was ripped from my slumber by Kakashi standing over, shaking me hard enough to rock my head about. When he saw that I was awake, he stepped back for a moment, "Come with me, Naruto and Sasuke are waiting for us outside. You slept late, and missed breakfast. Now It's time to get to work." I shot out of my bed, pulling on my clothes, and sliding my mask down onto my face. I grabbed my sealing scroll which held all my equipment, like my shuriken, smoke bombs, and kunai, before I slid my katana into it's baldric so the hilt stuck up over my right shoulder as I ran out the door.

Tazuna joined us mere moments after I joined the other Konoha nin outside, and we set off to the bridge. The day seemed even darker and sadder than it had been for several days. The clouds above us that previously had been various darkening shades of gray over the last few days, were now a much darker color, most were just about black, while other seemed to be a very dark purple, all of which were threatening to burst, to release what was sure to be a torrential downpour upon us. As we started to get close to the bridge, lightning began to occasionally arc across the sky, illuminating the dark day for a brief moment.

I almost didn't notice the shift in the wind, as it was barely stronger than a soft wisp, but I did notice when Naruto started to sniff the air, with a puzzled look on his face, and when Kakashi's eye widened in surprise as he too sniffed the air. I looked over to Sasuke to see if he knew what was going on, but he just shrugged his shoulders slightly, pursing his lips from annoyance at being kept out of the loop. Kakashi motioned for us to quicken our pace, as he picked up Tazuna, and we all shot forward at full speed. We landed on the bridge to a scene of utter carnage.

There were puddles of blood seeping out from under various different piles of bodies. From the faces that I could see, the bodies in the piles belonged to the men who worked on the bridge, none of whom were still all in one piece, almost all of whom had lost at least several limbs, and many of whom had senbon sticking into them in various places all over their bodies.

I stopped for a very long second, only to watch as the other three shinobi continued, as if this was not the first times any of them had seen something on this level. Kakashi I understood, since he fought in a war, but Naruto and Sasuke just confused me. Team Seven and I stopped, immediately dropping into taijutsu stances as mist started to seep down the bridge towards us, as Killing Intent permeated the air, weighing down on us like a thick blanket.

Sakura dropped out of the mist next to Tazuna, causing him to jump slightly in fright. "There were some mercenaries that tried to attack Tsunami's house, but I drove them off." At Kakashi's nod, she pulled out a kunai and took up a defensive position in front Tazuna, guiding him to a safe hovel under some fallen steel beams.

Keeping his eyes directed towards the end of the bridge, Kakashi started belting out orders to the three of us left behind him on the bridge. "With Sakura protecting Tazuna, I want Naruto and Sasuke to occupy Zabuza's accomplice. We don't know how strong he is, but the longer you can fight him for, the more time Jeremiah and I get to try to take down the Demon himself. GO!"

With that said, Kakashi and I dashed into the mist as he pulled up his forehead protector to unveil his Sharingan. As we left, I heard Sasuke and Naruto cry out in anger, assumedly because they had found their enemy. Kakashi and I finally found Zabuza waiting for us at the very end of the bridge, in a slight gap in the mist. Zabuza flashed through handsigns, Kakashi matching him, as they both yelled out "SUITON: SUIDAN NO JUTSU!" They both shot out a torrent of water out of their mouths, perfectly matching each other, until Zabuza burst into water, revealing that he was only a Mizubunshin the whole time.

"You really thought that would get me? You thought it would be that easy?" Zabuza's voice rang out through the mist, seemingly from everywhere all at once. "Well, one can hope, can't they?" At Kakashi's response, Zabuza's quiet chuckle echoed around us. Kakashi started to sniff the air subtly again, his head snapping to the left of him. "He's there. The mist can hide his voice, and his form, but the increased moisture in the air can only help my sense of smell." **(A/N That's some real science for ya, fools. Humans smell better in humid weather than dry weather. And Kakashi already has an increased olfactory system that is better than some Inuzuka's, soooo, yeah, Science, Bitches!)** With Kakashi guiding me as we ran through the mist, we shunshined forward, as I pulled out my katana, to block the Kubikirihocho being swung with the intent to take my head off. Using my katana, I directed the huge blade up as I slid under Zabuza's strike on my knees, before I spun around and dashed towards his back as Kakashi ran towards him from his front with a kunai. Zabuza stabbed his sword into the bridge, before jumping up to perform a handstand on the hilt of his sword, dodging our attacks.

Zabuza pulled his sword out of the bridge, effortlessly swinging his sword horizontally as he spun around, forcing Kakashi and I to jump back away from him as he disappeared into the mist again. Kakashi took a quick moment to relocate Zabuza in the mist as he started talking again, taunting us about how we would never be able to beat him in his own element. Kakashi and I dashing towards Zabuza as fast as we could, Kakashi running at top speed, as I disappeared and reappeared in a flash of lightning next to Zabuza.

Kakashi and I tried again to hit Zabuza repeatedly as he continually dodged or blocked our attacks for a few moments before disappearing again back into the mist. This continued for a long few minutes before Kakashi got fed up with the game of cat and mouse that Zabuza was clearly using to stall until his accomplice overcame the odds and defeated Naruto and Sasuke. A large spike of chakra flooded across the bridge, which Kakashi evidently recognized and worried him. Kakashi flew through some handsigns before biting his thumb and slapping the ground with his palm. With a cry of "Kuchiyose no Jutsu!", and a puff of smoke, a pack of dogs appeared in front of Kakashi wearing different levels of ninja paraphernalia. "Attack the second closest scent, it's slightly muted, but it should be easy to locate." The dogs dashed off into the mist, growling menacingly deep in their throat.

Kakashi and I followed them into the mist, bursting into another gap in the mist, where Zabuza was trying to fend off the pack of dogs. I shunshined forward in a burst of lightning, sliding along the ground, taking Zabuza's ankles out from under him as he was distracted with the dogs. The dogs, both literally and figuratively, pounced on the opportunity, two dogs biting each of Zabuza's limbs, forcing him into a kneeling position. Kakashi ran through some hand signs before his right hand illuminated with lightning chakra shaped into a blade around his hand.

Kakashi and I ran towards Zabuza at the same time from different directions, him with his jutsu, and me with my katana, poised to stab him in the back of the head. Mere steps away from Zabuza, he tilted his head to the side as I stabbed forward with my katana, causing the bladed edge to just barely nick his ear. As my blade slid past him, a figure appeared in front of Zabuza, only to have Kakashi's hand puncture right through the right side of their chest, and for my katana to slide in from behind them, slipping between ribs to come out clean on the other side.

Out of shock and confusion, Kakashi and I withdrew quickly pulling out of the figure. As katana and hand were removed from their chest cavity, the figure collapsed to the side with a slight spray of blood from their two wounds, finally landing on their back as Zabuza's hold over the mist slipped, leaving us all stunned, unmoving, as the mist disappeared, and the clouds above us broke, with first a slight drizzle that quickly turned into a torrential downpour, as Zabuza's accomplice, the hunter nin, the boy from the forest those few days ago, lay dying on the bridge in a pool of his own blood.

 **RIP Haku, we will hopefully never forget you. I really like his character, and I was seriously debating letting him live, because he's a pretty cool character, and would be fun to write, but Haku is integral to both the character development of team seven, and also the reveal of Zabuza's hidden nature. Sooooooooo, he dead. Sorry this took a while, guys, life's a bitch sometimes, and I've got lacrosse starting up in earnest this upcoming week, so I don't know how frequently I'll be able to update. Please review, and I hope you guys enjoyed. Anonymous Jonin out, PEACE!**


	8. Chapter 8

**Hello all, lovely to see you all back. Hope you all enjoy the chapter. I don't own Naruto, sadly, thought you'd all know that by now.**

 **Previously:**

 _Out of shock and confusion, Kakashi and I withdrew quickly pulling out of the figure. As katana and hand were removed from their chest cavity, the figure collapsed to the side with a slight spray of blood from their two wounds, finally landing on their back as Zabuza's hold over the mist slipped, leaving us all stunned, unmoving, as the mist disappeared, and the clouds above us broke, with first a slight drizzle that quickly turned into a torrential downpour, as Zabuza's accomplice, the hunter nin, the boy from the forest those few days ago, lay dying on the bridge in a pool of his own blood._

Zabuza stared down at the boy lying before him as the pools of blood slowly started to seep towards him until his knees and shins were covered in the blood of his companion. I looked down in surprise from a clatter coming from the ground at my feet, only to see that my katana, in my surprise, had slipped from my fingers to land at my feet. I looked back up to see Naruto and Sasuke stop next to Kakashi, looking down in shock at Haku's body.

A large spike of chakra exploded outward from Zabuza, throwing the dogs off of him, and pushing all four of us back, forcing us to anchor ourselves with chakra. He flew forward with Executioner's blade in hand, intent on taking off my head, likely before he attacked Kakashi. He swung his blade horizontally, forcing me to crouch down quickly, before throwing myself to the side to avoid the vertical follow up slash that buried the tip of the blade several feet into the concrete. Coming out of my roll, I pushed off of the ground into a handspring to create distance.

This was not as effective as I would have liked, however, as I narrowly avoided a thrust that I had to bend around, but which still just barely cut through my shirt, leaving a thin scratch on my side. Kakashi, finally regaining his bearings, brought his kunais to bear right as he shunshined in front of me, just in time to stop Zabuza from cleaving me in twain. Sasuke and Naruto both ran at Zabuza from behind with kunai in hand, though they were clearly struggling to overcome various senbon punctures, and Sasuke was fighting through mild exhaustion. Instead of turning to face them, Zabuza dodged their kunai, pulling his sword back towards him, before spinning rapidly in place, his blade parallel to the ground. To avoid being bisected, Sasuke, Naruto, and Kakashi jumped back.

I took advantage of Zabuza's momentary distraction to disappear and reappear in flashes of lightning at my sword, scooping it up off the ground. I flashed back to Zabuza, only to arrive to a scene of Zabuza standing, head bowed, sword held limply in his hand, with three kunai pointed at his neck. He stood there, defeated, tears leaking out of his eyes. "Do it. Just kill me. I promised Haku that I would make him strong. That I would protect him. I failed him. I didn't help him at all. I just led him to his death."

"Unlike some other villages, we do not kill surrendered captives. We are going to take you back to Konoha until such a time that we can return you to Kirigakure." Kakashi pulled out ninja wire out of his equipment bag on his hip, and, pulling his kunai away from Zabuza's adams apple, stepped behind him to loop the wire around Zabuza's wrists. Unfortunately, it was at that moment that a very large gathering of people reached the end of the bridge and decided to make their presence known. Their leader, a short, doughy, man with a large plume of brown hair, a large nose, and small sunglasses covering his eyes, stood at the forefront, with his hands clasped behind his back. "Ah, Zabuza, it would seem that fool you called an apprentice finally kicked it. Thank god for that, he was a little brat. The world's better off without him. I'm quite grateful towards you Konoha shinobi. You're saving me the trouble of having my men kill Zabuza. I never intended to pay him, after all. Although, I never thought that he wouldn't even accomplish the relatively simple task of killing an elderly bridge builder. Well, I digress. Zabuza, Konoha shinobi, you are dismissed. You may leave the old man here. My own men will take it from here."

From near Zabuza, an oppressively large chakra suddenly spiked, knocking the air out of my lungs, forcing most of the weaker willed members of Gato's mob to their knees. Turning my head, my eyes widened in surprise as I found not Zabuza, but Naruto, with a clearly visible shroud of light blue chakra tinged with red surrounding his body, flickering upwards like a fire. I could feel as indomitable anger saturated the air around me as Naruto's chakra cloak continued to flare to greater heights, the red chakra slowly becoming more pronounced, evaporating the rain in the air several feet before it touched Naruto. Inexplicable fear seeped into my bones as Naruto took an angry step around and in front of, Zabuza, standing between the nukenin and the businessman, kunai held in a tightly clenched fist.

"Zabuza and Haku aren't just some tools for you to discard when you're done with them. They're people, and more than that, they are skilled and respectable shinobi. You can't just abandon them and your contract at the drop of a hat!" Naruto, already angry when he started, slowly grew angrier as he spoke, pure, unadulterated anger dripping from his every word to sink into the air, making it harder and harder to breath as Naruto's chakra started slipping dangerously close to purple. "Shinobi are not playthings for you to use until you get bored or they break! We have morals, and hopes, and dreams. We're not just a weapon that's only useful for fighting, until we can't even do that! So fuck you, Gato, and you better turn around and leave Wave Country forever, or I'm going to hit you so hard, you'll be shitting teeth!"

Gato, through either false bravado, or pure anger and hatred, managed to still hold his ground, locking eyes with the blond genin. Addressing his men without looking at them, "Boys, this dipshit's all bark. The one who brings him to me will get enough money to retire in a week." His men, emboldened by greed, got to their feet and surged forward, only to pause hesitantly as Zabuza pulled himself up to his full intimidating height, lowering a glare the men closest to him. "Take a few steps back, child. This is not your betrayal to sort through." Pulling his gaze up to where Gato now stood, near the back of the mob, Zabuza spoke to his former employer, with thinly veiled anger leaking into his voice, giving it a snarling quality. "Go ahead, Gato. Hide behind your stupid mercenaries, you yellow-bellied coward. You think they can protect you from me? Then tell them to attack me. Do it, Gato. Make my fucking day." Zabuza's lip curled up in disgust for the businessman, before the very scared shipping mogul pointed at the Kirigakure no Kijin, shouting at his mercenaries to kill him.

Zabuza hefted his sword up onto his shoulder, before bringing it down to cut his first opponent in half, and kicking the two halves into two of his comrades with enough force to knock them into the air and off the bridge. Zabuza shot forward, pushing off of the ground with enough force to put small cracks in the bridge. Zabuza met his next enemy with a snarl on his face, and his hand around his enemy's neck. Zabuza then lifted the screaming, kicking mercenary up off the ground, before slamming him down onto the bridge hard enough for an audible crack to resonate through the air, the mercenary's body turning into a soft, boneless mass, as a crater formed underneath his body. Zabuza then took the boneless man and threw him bodily into the large mob of mercenary's, knocking about five down. Zabuza ran forward again, deeper into the mob, hacking and slashing his way through innumerable mercenaries, their various body parts littering the bridge behind him. This was my first experience seeing a jonin fully unleash their abilities on an opponent who was clearly incapable of doing anything to stop them, and it was painfully obvious exactly how badly I would have been beaten, had Kakashi not been around to mitigate the attention of one of the strongest Seven Swordsmen, one who had most definitely earned the title of Demon of the Hidden Mist.

Zabuza carved a bloody, destructive path through Gato's mercenaries, before jumping after the boss himself, landing with his feet on Gato's shoulders, forcing him to crumple to the ground. Zabuza flipped Gato over onto his back, his massive blade poised to strike in a moment. "In the span of several sentences, you broke every single rule I have with clients. But worse than your backing out of our agreement, and worse than your intended betrayal, you insulted the first apprentice I have had in quite some time, and the only person on this world that I cared about anymore. For that, you shall die." Before Gato could say anything in reply, Zabuza's Kubikirihocho descended and Gato's head fell to the ground, rolling away as his neck spewed blood.

"Everyone who has been payed by Gato to fight anyone present on this bridge has about ten seconds to get off the bridge before I alleviate you of the pain of living." Zabuza said, slowly turning around to look back down the bridge, through the mercenary crowd, head bowed. When none of the mercenaries even budged, Zabuza screamed at them, "MOVE, YOU FUCKING MAGGOTS! BEFORE I SHOVE MY SWORD UP YOUR DICKHOLES!" Evidently, that was just enough motivation, as the mercenaries all immediately bolted, sprinting past Zabuza, all of them gone by the time he even hit 2 on his countdown.

Zabuza started walking slowly back towards us, placing his sword back onto his back as he walked, looking positively forlorn, and with his feet dragging slightly. "You know, Haku was on a very short list of people whom I actually trusted. Even before I became a nukenin, there were really only two people outside of the swordsman that I trusted. And then they both betrayed me. But Haku was unerringly faithful, even in his last moments. He was completely willing and ready to sacrifice himself for me, even when I didn't know if I would do the same thing." I could feel tears prickling the sides of my eyes, before spilling out and flowing down my cheeks. In the heat of the battle, I didn't have the time to truly register that I had taken my first life. I felt bile rise up in my throat, and pulled my mask up onto the top of my head, placing my hands on my hips, looking up at the sky, and breathing slowly in and out, slowly abating the increasing nausea that I was experiencing. Zabuza looked over at me, as I pulled my shoulder length red hair back and tying it into a ponytail to keep it out of my face.

"Your first kill?" At my nod, Zabuza continued talking as he picked up Haku in his arms. "It's a shame. This will be difficult for you to shake off. Most shinobi kill a truly bad person for their first kill. Usually a bandit or a drug dealer. It's easier to dehumanize that way, makes it easier to rationalize killing in the future somehow. I guess people tend to assume the worst of the people they're ordered to kill, to somehow make the killing a good thing. This coming from someone who has currently the second highest body count of any living Kirigakure shinobi, the killing never gets easier. But if you can make it through the next, say, three months, without killing yourself out of guilt for killing one of the truly good humans left in the world, come find me. I just might be able to help you, with some other aspects of your training." And with that, Zabuza fled the bridge, giving us no time to even hope to grab him and capture him.

Tazuna slowly approached us, walking to us from his hiding spot farther down the bridge. "So is it all over?" At Kakashi's nod, he smiled at all of us impossibly wide. "Well, then, job well done. I will send a message with you all back to your hokage about when to bill me for the necessary funds for an A-rank mission. It's the least I can do for you all." With that, we all headed back to Tazuna's house for some much needed rest.

 **A week later**

I stood at the end of the bridge that connected Wave to the mainland, my mask on, my katana on my back, and all of my gear in various storage seals that were hidden on my person. I was off to the side standing silently with Kakashi as Naruto and the rest of team Seven said their goodbyes to our former hosts. Looking off into the forest on the edge of town, I saw a shadowy figure leaning on what seemed to be a large knife. But, when I blinked, the man had disappeared into the undergrowth.

Turning back to look down the bridge towards the mainland, I saw several crows landing on various parts of the railings on either side of the bridge, not one more than three meters away from another. Their piercingly dark gaze however, was not directed at me or my sensei, who were closest to them, but rather, the Genin of Team Seven, and clearly made Kakashi a little more than nervous, evidenced by a widened eye, and a very slightly shaking hand. However, before the other Genin were done with their farewells, the birds quickly departed, flying in a circular formation away from the bridge, with three in the middle, forming a triangle in the center of the circle.

The trek across the bridge took longer than the boat ride we took to get to Wave, but was definitely more comfortable, especially given the choppy nature of the sea between Wave and the mainland. At the end of the bridge, the familiar trees of Hi no Kuni rose up, an endless expanse of rich shades of brown and deep greens. There are stories told in the academy that the Shodai Hokage was the one to create all the forests in Hi no Kuni, and that it was his brother, the Nidaime Hokage, who created the lakes and rivers in the country.

These stories all flashed through my mind as Team Seven and I dashed through the forest, leaping from branch to branch. Occasionally, I would shunshin ahead, looking around me, to scout for threats, and wait for a moment until Team Seven caught up. When we finally got back to Konoha, Izumo and Kotetsu were waiting at the guard house next to the gate house, exactly how they were when we left. Kakashi showed them a bundle of papers that he pulled from his seemingly endless kunai pouch, which I liked to call his 'Pouch of Infinite Possibilities'. I swear to God, actually saw him pull a full sized mallet out of it one time. Not even joking.

After much shenanigans in between the gate and the Hokage's tower, involving a chain smoking Jonin man with a goatee, a different Jonin man with caterpillars for eyebrows wearing orange leggings over a disgustingly green leotard, a very bored and 'hip' Kakashi, and a beautiful Jonin woman with long black hair, and red eyes looking very exasperated with the whole encounter in general, we stood in front of the Hokage's desk, while Kakashi tried his best to explain the mission and it's various complications, with some input from the rest of Team Seven when needed. When they were done, Team Seven left, and I stayed behind, per a request made to me by the Hokage.

I stood in front of his desk, my hands clasped behind my back. "So, Jeremiah, your opinion of the mission as a whole?" The Hokage asked me, surprising me slightly that he wanted my opinion at all. "Well, Hokage-sama, I think there were times in the mission that could have gone smoother, or been avoided at all. I think that there was probably a way for us to capture Zabuza. There was probably also a better way to deal with his accomplice that didn't involve...killing him…" When I trailed off, my head tilting downward, Sarutobi immediately leaned forward in his chair, his forearms resting against his desk. "That was your first kill, yes?" At my hesitant nod, he continued. "Well, you hide your emotional trauma better than most I have seen. However, though I am no Yamanaka, I do know that holding all your emotions inside of you can be terrible for you. I know that you are not particularly close to anyone in this village, but we do have hosts of people who are trained and qualified to help shinobi out with this exact situation. I have lost a number of shinobi to mental instability. I implore you to do what you can to avoid adding yourself to that number." With pursed lips, he waved his hand to dismiss me. "I will call on you soon for another mission."

I left the room, feeling sullen and downtrodden. However, instead of going to talk to someone like the Hokage suggested, I ignored his advice, and went to the training ground that was the home of my Anbu crash course training. Pulling my sword out of it's baldric, I increased my weights until I had to use chakra to move, and then decreased the weight just barely. Shunshining forward, I swung my sword forward, leaving a cut several inches deep into the wood of the tree. I repeated this several times until my shoulders started to burn, at which point I sheathed my sword, and gathered lightning chakra around my fists, just like in the forest in Wave, punching the tree, electricity exploding outward and coursing through the tree with each strike.

After several hours of taking my anger out on the trees around me, I stepped back, looking at the fallen trunks around me, breathing hard. I slowly trudged home, fatigue slipping deeper into my limbs with every step. I opened the door to my apartment, and fell onto my bed, and almost instantly fell asleep.

 **One week later**

After a week of training myself into the ground over and over again, every day, I woke up one day to find an Anbu with a monkey mask standing by the side of my bed. "The Hokage has another mission for you. Be in his office in ten minutes." And with that, the Anbu blurred out of my sight leaving behind just an open window. Quickly getting dressed, I run out of my house as fast as I could, and ultimately reached the Hokage's office just before my rather arbitrary time limit ran out. Not bothering to slow down as I burst through the door to Sarutobi-sama's office, I ran directly into a very large man with a chinstrap beard and a cigarette hanging out of his mouth. I bounced off the startlingly muscular man, feeling rather like I had just smacked into a brick wall, only just barely executing a quick somersault to keep myself from falling right onto my ass, and looking like a fool.

Standing up, I bowed low before the man, "My sincerest apologies, Jonin-san. I did not expect anyone to be standing right behind the doors." He looked down at me, a bored expression on his face, taking a long drag on his cigarette before he spoke. "Eh, it's fine, don't worry about it, kid, and just call me Asuma, would ya? That whole using honorifics thing is so annoying. Makes me feel old."

From behind him, I heard the voice of my former classmate Choji, taking a short break from his food to join the conversation. "But, Asuma-sensei, you are kinda old, aren't you?" Somehow looking even more bored than before, Asuma rubbed his head in an embarrassed fashion. "Ah, kid, I'm not even thirty yet, still got a couple more years before I even hit that mile marker."

"Yes, well, enough chit-chat for now. You all should get going soon if you expect to make it to your first stop of many before night falls. You do have quite a ways to travel." The voice of the Hokage rang out, stopping us all in our conversational tracks. "I expect you all to leave within the next hour or so. You have about a month to complete the mission, but you should be able to return before then. Asuma knows the way, and can direct you all along the safest paths to your destination." With that, Sarutobi-sama directed his gaze down to his desk, pulling some paperwork from the top of a stack with a small sigh. Asuma and his team filed out, Asuma taking his time to tuck a scroll into one of the pouches on the front of his Jonin flak jacket. I followed after them wordlessly, after nodding wordlessly to Choji and Shikamaru as greeting, feeling confused about what mission I had just stepped into.

- **One hour later** -

I sat on a rock just outside the imposing wooden doorway that served as the main entrance to the leaf village, sharpening my katana. Asuma stood a short distance away, just to my left, leaning on the guard house, talking to the Chunins inside in hushed tones. Shikamaru, Choji, and Ino all showed up with about a minute to spare, all looking very worried. Asuma walked over to us, as I sheathed my katana, and stood up from the rock. "We will be leaving in just a minute or two, does anyone have any questions." When I raised my hand slowly, Asuma looked at me, "Ya? What's up?" "I don't know what this mission entails." Instead answering me immediately, Asuma took his time removing the scroll I saw him with earlier from his flak jacket. "We are to deliver this scroll, which contains some sensitive diplomatic documents, to a previously chosen destination. This mission will likely be rather perilous, given the remoteness of the destination, and the threats that exist on pretty much every route to and from it."

"Okay, but where are we even going?" I asked, still confused. This time, it was Shikamaru who answered me, instead of Asuma. "We're going to the country with the highest number of bandits and missing ninja on it's borders, looking to ambush travelers. We're going to Iron Country."

 **Sorry this took so long to get out, but I have had a ton of things going on recently, and this story fell very far down my priority list. Luckily, I'll be graduating in a little over two weeks, so all my classes are pretty much done, and we aren't doing much of anything, so I'll have more time for this. Thanks so much for being patient with me, you guys are awesome. All of you should go check out Bulba Fett's profile, I'm working with him on two different stories right now, the Caged Bird, and the First Immortal. Both are awesome, and we love the support we're getting from you guys about them, even though Caged Bird hasn't updated in a little while. Review if you want, I do love feedback. Thanks!**


	9. Chapter 9

**Hey all, welcome back. Hope you guys all enjoy the chapter.**

 **FINE, you guys got me! I don't own Naruto!**

 **Previously:**

" _Okay, but where are we even going?" I asked, still confused. This time, it was Shikamaru who answered me, instead of Asuma. "We're going to the country with the highest number of bandits and missing ninja on it's borders, looking to ambush travelers. We're going to Iron Country."_

For some reason, that explanation from Shikamaru was all that Team Ten decided to give me, as if they just expected me to just absorb that info and not have any opinions or thoughts on the matter. Instead of waiting even half a moment for me to react, Team Ten, including Asuma, all took to the tree branches, heading north. After a short beat of confusion, I quickly jumped after them, blinking forward as much as I dared, leaving a crackling trail of lightning in my wake, until I caught up to Team Ten, Asuma and Shikamaru seemingly being the ones to notice my shocking arrival, characterized by their eyes widening slightly.

"So what's the deal with this Iron Country? Why's it got so many people waiting to bush-whack merchants and travelers on the borders?" I inquired, causing Asuma to look at me as his cigarette burned down to the filter, and he tossed it into a small brook we passed over. "Well, Iron Country has by far the best blacksmiths, handsdown. They are also pretty isolated. Unlike the Five Great Nations, which border multiple other countries, Iron Country is bordered only by Ice and Earth Country. The nearest major hidden village that would be able to sustainably trade with them is Iwagakure, and even they are at least two days of travel for shinobi from them, which can be a trip of up to several weeks for civilians, depending on road conditions. As a result, because of the massive demand for any ninja tools, typically ninjatos, chokutos, katanas and the like, and the comparatively small supply that exists, the smiths of Iron Country can jack their prices to already rather ludicrous ranges. Now factor in the ability of skilled rogue ninjas, and you have shipment being taken for up to half of the weapons they're carrying, which drives up the prices of the legally acquired weapons, and means that the thieves can undercut the market, and still get massive profit margins. So, massive groups of roving bandits will stake out the land borders of Iron Country for possibly several years, collecting huge amounts of weaponry, and selling it all to weapon smiths who need meticulously forged weapons, for pure profit. It's an incredibly lucrative business, and bandits have been doing it for quite some time. Iron country doesn't have the standing army capabilities to clean up it's borders, Ice country hasn't been in contact with any other countries for some time, and Earth country's current daimyo is too busy eating himself into death by heart disease to order his army or Iwagakure to do anything about it, though he has a brother who will likely replace him very soon."

Startled by the veritable lecture Asuma just gave us, Shikamaru looked at his sensei very confused. "Asuma-sensei, how do you know so much, especially about the Earth Daimyo?" Asuma looked at his student, looking bored again. "Well, I _have_ met the man. And up until a couple years ago, I was one of the Fire Daimyo's Twelve Guardian Ninjas. It was, for quite some time, literally my job to know everything about what was going on in the other Five Great Nations, and that's a habit that you don't really ever get rid of."

Shikamaru seemed woefully underwhelmed by Asuma's response, leading me to believe that he asked the question purely for the benefit of the rest of us in the squad. We kept running for quite some time before something that everyone else had glossed over struck me like a bolt of lightning. "Wait, Asuma-sensei, how are we supposed to even get to Iron Country? Are we going to cut through Stone Country? Because that could be terrible for us, seeing as we're wearing Konoha headbands." My mouth dropped open behind my mask when Asuma looked at me and slowly nodded his head.

"We're going to just be passing through. As long as we don't stay long or start anything while we're there, we should be fine. Technically, because of the treaty, shinobi can visit foreign countries, provided they stay in designated areas, and don't engage in anything combat or espionage related." Asuma said this slowly, picking his words carefully, every word weighted with the purpose with which he chose it. For the first time since I met him, Asuma seemed extremely focused, his eyes suddenly very sharp and directed, scanning the forest in front of us. "We will have to be the most careful we have ever been. We will travel into Waterfall Country as far as we can, until we hit the coast, then, we should be able to go straight west, which will unfortunately take us very close to Iwagakure. We will do all we can to avoid encountering Iwa shinobi, but there will most likely be only so much that we can do. Now, once we enter Waterfalls, we will be silent unless strictly necessary, once we enter Stone country we will stay silent unless one of you is about to be wounded." After a resounding chorus of "Yes. sensei"'s, Asuma started to pick up the speed, until the three other genin could barely keep up.

It took us two days to reach the edge of Fire Country, and a little over one and a half more to reach the coast of Waterfall country. Half a day of traveling west found us just a few feet from the border of Stone Country, sitting around a slowly smoldering fire. Asuma looked at all of us around a fire, right after he tossed a cigarette stub into the fire. "This shouldn't be too bad, I don't anticipate anything more than heavy travel, and possibly a stop from a squad of Iwa shinobi. At the worst."

One day. One day was all it took. Granted, we were just a few miles from Iwa, but shinobi contact of this nature is still, and always will be, rather unexpected. One moment, I was blinking forward, to bypass Asuma momentarily, to scout farther into the admittedly small forest ahead of us, and the next, Shikamaru is flying through the trees past me, barely a blur. Almost a moment later, a shinobi shot out of the ground in front of me, almost landing a punch with a fist covered by rock. At the last second, I was able to duck under the punch, blinking behind him, before spinning, and landing a solid spinning kick into the ribs of my assailant, tossing him several meters away, bouncing on the ground. He stood up, entire body now covered in the damnable rock. He started lumbering forward, eyes blazing with anger. I didn't move, waiting for an opportune moment. It came when the man turned golem tried to punch. I grabbed his wrist, throwing him over my shoulder as his momentum carried him through several trees. I blinked forward, my fist covered in lightning, and slammed my fist down onto his chest, lightning exploding outward, shooting chunks of rock every which way, his body convulsing for a long second before he slumped when I pulled my hand away, his eyes closed.

I looked up, blinking back towards my team's former position, just in time to see Ino eat a sizable lava ball right to the chest, launching her back into a tree, cracking the bark. I shot forward, instinctively coating my hands in chakra, pulling the lava ball away from her, before she got heavily burned, turning to look for Asuma and Chouji, to see them pressured by two Iwa shinobi, one of whom was a towering giant of a man, covered in bright red metal armor, and wearing a black kimono over it. I took a step towards them to try to help them, momentarily forgetting that Ino was also attacked, a mistake that was quickly fixed as an earth wall shot up out of the ground in front of me. I spun around, in time to see my second assailant straighten up in front of me, roughly twenty meters away.

I paused for a moment, looking my opponent up and down. She had short cropped hair, and pupil-less pink eyes. She wore a traditional Iwagakure shinobi outfit, a deep reddish brown tunic with only her left arm covered by a long sleeve, shorts and shinobi sandals of the same color, with mesh armor covering the parts of her legs that were uncovered. I straightened up as much as I could, keeping my stance neutral. "I hope that you give me more of a challenge than that washout of a kunoichi. She didn't do all that much other than plead with me to not hurt her too much." I didn't answer, only shifting my left shoulder and foot forward to angle my body away from her. "Well, fine, if you don't want to say anything, then don't. Less things to distract from beating the snot out of you."

With that, she flew through hand seals, shooting a glob of lava out of her mouth, and immediately shooting two out to either side of the original. Instead of dodging to either side, I shot forward, sliding under the projectiles. I blinked forward, dropping low to try to sweep her leg out from under her. However, at the last moment, she jumped, flipping back and away from me, stopping a little under five meters away. I shot forward again, trying to pressure her until she cracked. Instead, she shot through hand seals again, an earth and stone dome shooting into existence around her right before I reached her, my fist landing a solid, shaking blow to the dome, a spread of cracks spidering out around my fist, almost instantly filling back in. I hit the dome a couple more times, watching as the dome fixed itself every time. Making my decision, I stepped back and, charging my fist with lightning chakra, slammed it into the ground at the bottom of the dome, cracking the ground violently, causing the dome to crack and collapse, revealing… Nothing. The girl was gone.

Moments later, the girl jumped out of the ground behind me, landing a solid blow to my cheek, instantly putting me on the ground. I rolled away, launching myself up back onto my feet, ducking to the side to avoid a second punch. In response, I dropped low into a crouch catching the kick she immediately sent at me, using it to throw her away from me, towards a tree. She righted herself midair, skidding for a few feet, before she shot back at me, launching a kick towards my face. Stopping the kick pushed me back a few feet, but I pushed her leg away, using the space to flash through hand seals, and shooting a weak bolt of lightning towards the girl, but she jumped, dodging it for the most part, only just barely grazing her right leg. She landed on the ground, her right leg buckling, almost falling over.

She looked at me, surprised, almost looking confused. "That didn't cut my leg open… What the fuck? Why aren't you trying to kill me?" She stood, without moving for a long moment, just looking at me, her head tilting to the side. I didn't move, waiting for a very long moment for her to react, until I finally relaxed, however not truly letting my guard down. I held my tongue, not responding. "What!? Don't have anything to say?!" She screamed at me, clearly annoyed at my lack of response. "Why don't you say anything?!" She charged at me again, her right leg clearly slowing her down slightly, just enough for me to blink to her right side, and kick her legs out, causing her to faceplant into the ground. She rolled forward, clumsily standing back up, her leg clearly bothering her more and more as the fight went on.

I looked at her, as I backed up several meters, watching her turn around angrily. For the first time in the fight, I spoke up, my voice completely neutral, no emotion or inflection in my voice at all. "I don't want to actually fight you. I'm only fighting you to protect my current teammates." She looked at me furiously as I walked away from her, to pick up Ino, before I turned around to look back at her. "The numbness should wear off completely in half an hour, this is the worst part." I walked away from her, leaving her to hobble after me, as I walked over to where I last saw Asuma and Chouji, before a wall of earth burst up in front of me again. I slowly turned around, to see her crouched down, hands on the ground, and face contorted in anger. "I'm the granddaughter of the goddam Tsuchikage, and I will not have some bullshit Konoha Anbu wannabe just walking away from me like I'm not worth his time!"

I placed Ino on the ground, and quickly flashed through hand seals, the palms of my hands lighting up with electricity. "If you leave now, no one would think any less of you. You are at an extreme disadvantage here. I've already proven that I'm faster than you, especially with your leg in the condition it's in." Angrily standing up, the girl stared me down for a very long moment, before she spoke again. "I am Kurotsuchi, I am the granddaughter of the third Tsuchikage, and if I plan to be the Fourth Tsuchikage, I cannot back down when some no good Konoha Anbu weasel challenges me!" She was screaming at me, flashing through hand seals, slamming her hands down on the ground, yelling " **DOTON: DORYUSO!** ", causing the earth to spike up higher and higher as her jutsu neared me. Waiting until the last second, I blinked forward, shooting left and right, dodging between the spikes of earth, leaving contrails of lightning arcing behind me. I landed right in front of her seemingly in no time, and grabbed both her arms, lightning arcing through her body, knocking her out in a second. "For the record, the mask is supposed to be a cat. I know it's missing a bit, but, come on, it still has the whiskers." I said, as I threw her over my shoulder, put Ino over my other shoulder, and ran back to grab the other Iwa genin I knocked out, I threw him over Kurotsuchi, and ran to Asuma, albeit slower than before. I landed behind Asuma, tired, and put the Genins I was carrying on the ground. Straightening up, I looked up just in time to see Chouji and his Iwa opponent collapse from the amount of injuries they each sustained, and Asuma and his opponent slowly stop fighting as well.

I blinked over to Asuma, standing beside him. "Asuma-sensei, if you wish to, you and I could probably take him down. Kakashi and I were able to handle Zabuza fairly easily together." However, Asuma put his hand out in front of me, and pushed me back. "No, we don't stand a chance against him. I'm sure he's just been toying with me this entire fight. Zabuza is a strong shinobi, but this is man is on a whole different level. He's holding back."

A deep voice rumbled from across the small clearing, my eyes snapping back onto the giant, as he tucked his hand into his kimono. "You are quite wise to realize this, Asuma Sarutobi. I am sorry that we had to attack you, but my kage gave me orders, and I will follow them. I must ask that you accompany me, whether peacefully or not, into Iwagakure. The Tsuchikage wishes to have a word with you all." Asuma, clearly still on guard, put away a pair of knuckle knives that I didn't even know he had out, creating two clones in a puff of smoke, one to carry Chouji, the other to go grab Shikamaru. Three clones formed out of pillars of water around Han as he walked away, each grabbing one of his Genin. I walked up behind Asuma, keeping my voice low, "I don't trust him, Asuma-sensei, I think this might be a trap. The Tsuchikage is not a man who would invite Konoha shinobi into his village."

Asuma looked at me, lips pursed. "I don't like this either, but, even with another Jonin here, maybe two, I still don't like our odds against that armored fella. Our options right now consist of, leaving my Genin team and trying to make a break for it, trying to fight that Han guy head on, trying to run while slowed by three unconscious Genin, or taking up an offer that could possibly get my Genin medical attention. The last option, obviously, is the one that has the highest chance of turning out well for us. However, I still don't trust their Tsuchikage, he's almost as old as my old man, and has almost as many years as a kage. Keep your guard up." He looked forward, crouching slightly, and we both shot off after Han through one of the only forests in Stone Country.

It took only minutes for us to escape the forest, opening up into the rocky, mountainous terrain that team Ten and I had been traversing for the past day, and slowly were acclimating to. Almost immediately, we found ourselves facing a mountain range that seemed to touch the heavens, and looked to have no accessible entry point, barring the peaks, which would easily take a day or two to ascend. However, as we actually reached the mountain face, four Iwa shinobi, clearly patrolling, stopped in front of us, and, after a rather heated conversation with Han, consisting of violent hand gestures and scowls sent in the direction of Asuma and I, the Iwa shinobi turned their backs to us, all four sliding fluidly through well practiced hand seals, and slamming their hands on the mountain face.

Immediately, the mountain side opened up like a sliding door, a long tunnel laying itself out in front of us. Han, nodding towards the shinobi, directed us into the tunnel, him and his clones following a second later. The tunnel wasn't particularly long, but it did slowly close behind us, incentivizing us to keep up a fairly quick clip, until we burst out into light at the end. Looking around, I noted that the mountain range surrounded the entirety of the village itself, which was largely made of stone towers that were all interconnected by a network of both swinging rope bridges and solid wood bridges. Despite the sun setting just over the mountains on the other side of the village, Iwa citizens were still streaming across the bridges, both shinobi and civilians alike.

Han, upon leaving the entrance, looked back at us before dashing forward towards the Tsuchikage's tower, the tallest tower, directly in the center of the village. His clones followed after him, and Asuma and I following the clones, Asuma looking around warily, eyes narrowing at the innumerable Iwa shinobi that stopped and stared at us as we shot past, too fast for a civilian eye to follow. We were running for barely a minute before Han stopped us and led us through a small hatch on the Tsukichage's tower, and down a small spiral staircase. We came out of a opening off to side of the main door into the Tsuchikage's office, causing the Tsuchikage to look over at us from his conversation with a man who stood probably just under five feet, wore a spiked forehead plate with his forehead protector on it, a black piece of metal that went all the way across his face horizontally, red hair pulled into a high ponytail, a red beard, and wore brown armor over his blue gi and pants, all in all striking a very imposing figure despite his height challenges.

But if he struck an imposing figure, the Tsuchikage was on a whole different level. Unlike the Hokage, who seemed benevolent at least on the surface, the Tsuchikage exuded a feeling that he would vaporize you if you spoke one wrong word. Sitting in the air, floating in front of the other man to reach eye level, the Tsuchikage clearly would have stood just barely over four feet. But his large nose, his dark, aggressive eyes, and thick eyebrows scrunched together over his eyes made for an intimidating sight. His white hair pulled into a topknot, his sharp drooping mustache, and pointed beard gave him a grandfatherly look that he had earned, and his odd cloak of sorts hung over his flak jacket, blowing slightly in the subtle breeze coming from the single open window behind him.

However, it was the red-haired man who spoke first, his tone belying concern for a protegee or family member, or a combination of the two, as he spoke in shock, his eyes alighting on the limp forms Han and his clones carried over their shoulders. "Han, what happened to Kurotsuchi? As a matter of fact, what happened to your whole Genin squad?" Han leveled a very unemotional gaze at him, and deadpanned, "Well, Roshi-san, they got knocked out, that sometimes happens in confrontations with other shinobi. Especially when nobody involved is looking to actually go for the kill."

Roshi just stared at him for a long moment, before smiling slightly. "Well, I'm glad to know that you didn't lose your sense of humor while I was away." His smile dropped slightly as he surveyed Asuma and I, turning into more of a smirk. "And look what little old Han caught. None other than one of the legendary Twelve Guardians, and a wannabe Anbu. How nice. Is this the team that Han was supposed to be looking for, Onoki?" As he spoke, his smirk turned back into a genuine smile, as he turned to look at the Tsuchikage.

The Tsuchikage looked at the limp bodies of the other Konoha Genin, and intently studied Asuma's face, waiting a long while before he finally spoke. "Yes, I suspect they are, though I didn't expect them to be led by Sarutobi's estranged son, and I certainly didn't expect the little Anbu to be with them. He's a bonus. Tell me, Han, how were the Konoha shinobi able to defeat all your genin when a surprise attack should have at least evened the numbers?"

Han looked back at Asuma and I before he responded to the Tsuchikage. "We removed that Nara initially, knocking him out, to hopefully put them at a strategic disadvantage, but failed to take into account that the Anbu always more than earn their masks in Konoha, and was more than a match for Akatsuchi, despite him using his Doton Jutsu to cover himself in stone to augment his Taijutsu, and ultimately took Akatsuchi down fairly quickly. After that, he managed to rescue one of his fellow Genin from heavy burns from a sizable lava ball that Kurotsuchi used to incapacitate her. He then managed to defeat Kurotsuchi, though not without a fight. The last Konoha Genin was able to fight Mara to a standstill, both evenly skilled in fairly similar taijutsu. And it was roughly then that Sarutobi told the baby Anbu to stand down, and to not incite further aggression."

Onoki looked at Asuma with a modicum of respect. "I don't care if you're a Konoha shinobi. That was a damn smart thing you did. Not many shinobi are willing to admit when a fight isn't worth fighting." And then he leveled his gaze onto me, and the pressure I felt in the room increased. "Remove your mask, boy. I want to know the next rising star Konoha is grooming." I pulled my mask up onto the top of my head, revealing the bottom half of my face in the company of foreign shinobi for the first time. Onoki studied my face for a long time, his eyes following the line of the scar on my cheekbone that was a constant reminder of my fight with Mizuki, but was normally covered by my mask. "Already a scar. Konoha does like their best ninja to have facial markings to distinguish them. Just look at that Hatake fellow, and that damned Jiraiya. Anyway, Sarutobi, do you have anything for me from that father of yours, or are you just here unannounced and without a good reason?"

At this, Asuma very slowly reached into one of the pouches on his flak jacket, and withdrew a roll of paper, tossing it over to the Tsuchikage, who caught it deftly, and slowly unrolled it, taking his time reading it.

"Well, it looks like I'll allow you to stay here while your team recovers. I'll let my shinobi know that you are not to be attacked. And, because I am nothing if not hospitable, Han, his Genin team, and Roshi. Roshi, I am correct in assuming that you will be staying for some time in the village?" Onoki looked over at Roshi, awaiting his response. Roshi stood quietly, seemingly having a conversation with himself inside his own mind before he finally spoke.

"Well, I suppose so. After all, how else am I supposed to know how well my protege has been progressing if I never see how well she's doing?" He smiled before he looked over at Asuma and I, his expression becoming clearly guarded. "And I guess I'll watch over these fellas and lass for you, if you want, Onoki, though I doubt I'm truly needed. These two at least seem too sensible to try anything in a foreign village."

Onoki simply grunted, before nodding. "Well, then, you all need to stop at the hospital then, get all these hurt Genin checked up on, make sure nothing is seriously wrong with them." With that said, he turned away from us, floating over to a window, and looking out it, his hands clasped behind his back.

When we got to the hospital, the doctors and nurses all sprang into action, whisking all the other Genin off into rooms for checkups and treatment, should it be required. Which left Asuma, Han, Roshi, and I in the lobby, standing together awkwardly. Well, that was, until I blurted out a question for Roshi.

"Roshi-san, why do act so casually around the Tsuchikage?" I immediately tensed, as did Asuma, regretting asking anything of him. Well, that was, until Roshi laughed.

"Well, I'm so casual because I can. I've known Onoki since he started as the Tsuchikage. We've been friends for so long, we're practically brothers. I come and go from the village as I please, because nobody here except Han and Onoki could stop me if I really wanted to leave, and Han and Onoki aren't going to stop me because they don't care what I do, for the most part, as long as I keep in touch, am happy with what I'm doing, and don't die." He looked over at me, smiling, before lightly punching Han in the arm. "Han here may look real big and mean, but he's a cuddly little teddy bear on the inside."

Emboldened by Roshi's positive reaction, I decided to shoot and ask another question, "So is Kurotsuchi your student or something? You called her your protege earlier, and I was not aware that Iwagakure had any Kekkei Genkai anymore, much less two people with Yoton."

His eyes saddened slightly at that, before he responded. "Yeah, well, Kurotsuchi's mom didn't know that she carried that gene either, and neither did her father. Unfortunately, both are now dead. Her mom died in childbirth, and her father died on a mission her grandfather assigned him, not knowing that their squad would get ambushed by a whole mess of rogue ninja. It tore Onoki to pieces to know that he had, knowingly or not, sent his own son to his death. So, since she doesn't have any parents to teach her anything, and Onoki can't be around often because he's the Tsuchikage, I knew her parents pretty well through Onoki, and I took care of her for a long time while she was growing up. And, when it came time for her to learn ninjutsu, taijutsu, and all that, she turned to me to help her learn. I'm the closest thing she's had to a parent since her dad died."

"You are far too forthcoming with information around this foreigner, Roshi. We don't even know his name." Han said, clearly aggravated with his more sociable companion. "Not that his name will matter much soon anyway. Those damned civilians will give him some stupid-ass nickname just like what they did with those Hatake and Namikaze fellows. 'The Yellow Flash', what a stupid nickname."

"You never fought the man, Han. He earned that nickname. The Fourth Hokage was literally a yellow flash across the battlefield, killing up to dozens of our men with every flash he made." Roshi spoke with a tone of respect, but also an underlying tone of fear, even when the Fourth had been dead for just under thirteen years. "But that's not the point. Baby Anbu, what's your name? It feels wrong to not know your name when you know ours."

"My name is Jeremiah." I said, glancing over at Asuma in time to see him look very wary about the direction this conversation was going.

"Well, Jeremiah, everyone either has a clan name or some title to go with their given name. For example, your Jonin-sensei over there is Asuma Sarutobi. I'm Roshi of the Yoton, and Han is Han of the Futton." Han visibly looked irked by Roshi talking about him, his arms crossed angrily. "Let's give you a title now, too. It will probably change. You only use lightning jutsu and lightning chakra, right? I'll call you Jeremiah of the Raiton."

 **Sorry for the wait all. Don't worry, Jeremiah will gather various titles throughout his journeys, but this will be significant for a reason that will be revealed later. See you all next chapter!**


	10. Chapter 10

**Hello all, welcome back!**

 **Previously:**

" _Well, Jeremiah, everyone either has a clan name or some title to go with their given name. For example, your Jonin-sensei over there is Asuma Sarutobi. I'm Roshi of the Yoton, and Han is Han of the Futton." Han visibly looked irked by Roshi talking about him, his arms crossed angrily. "Let's give you a title now, too. It will probably change. You only use lightning jutsu and lightning chakra, right? I'll call you Jeremiah of the Raiton."_

The doctors told us that we would have to stay for at least a week and a half. They barely had the civilian doctors to spare for my injured teammates, so they would have to heal through civilian practices for the most part. Medic nin would be popping in and out on occasion, to treat the Ino-Shika-Cho trio when possible, probably so that we could leave as soon as we could. It seemed that Iwa still harbored no love for Konoha, regardless of the very tenuous treaty the two villages share.

So Asuma and I were given a room in a hotel that seemed to at least tolerate us, and were given a training ground that was quarantined off from everywhere else in the village. So, I began going every day to do physical exercises and some katas that I remembered from some of the various styles I picked up while trying to create my own style, before I learned one of the many Anbu styles while training with Cat. It was a brutal taijutsu, which focused on overwhelming your opponent with misdirections and speed, forcing them to create an opening, before you landed several strikes before they knew what had happened. It was a polar opposite to the Goken that Maito Gai had mastered, which focused on forcing your opponent to create openings by beating the openings into them with superior speed and strength. Asuma recommended the misdirection through the training, saying that he didn't want to give Iwa any more knowledge on us than they already had.

So, the only real training that I did all week was intense physical activity with my weights on and slowly adding more and more weight as the week went on. That all ended rather abruptly on our seventh day in Iwa around noon. I was very slowly flowing through Tai-Chi katas when a kunai stuck into the dirt right next to my foot. I blinked slowly, as the tag on the kunai started to sizzle, before exploding forcefully, throwing up dirt and dust around it, and leaving a crater in the ground. I was saved from my leg getting blown off, by throwing myself off to the side right before the kunai exploded, rolling and coming up on one knee. Dashing off away from the crater, I pulled my weights off, dropping them onto the ground, my legs tensing and twitching slightly as I ran lightning chakra through them, waiting for my attacker to reveal themselves.

My patience was shortly rewarded, my opponent dropping down into the cloud of dust, a long brown cloak, hood pulled up, obscured everything physical about my opponent, barring the height, which, as best as I could tell, was an inch or two at most shorter than I was. I very slowly drew my katana and held it in a reverse grip. Blue lightning flashed as I shot across the ground, leaving small craters from my initial push-off. As I drew up to my opponent, I swung my sword forward, aiming for my opponent's neck. However, at the last possible moment, my opponent brought up two kunai to block my katana, and successfully redirecting the blow up and over their head. Using my momentum, I pushed chakra through my feet, spinning me around faster than the eye could follow. My opponent barely ducked under it as they flew through hand seals, and they sunk into the ground as the wind from my katana flying past pushed their hood off their heads. I was able to see a shock of black hair before they sunk under the ground.

Waiting on edge, it was barely a minute before I had to flip away from hands emerging from the ground, trying to grab my ankles. I landed and dashed forward as my opponent flew through hand seals again, my blade crackling with lightning. My gaze drifted up to my opponent's uncovered face as I ran, and my green eyes met startling pink eyes as Kurotsuchi smirked at my momentary distraction, and slammed her hands on the ground. The ground around her rapidly liquefied, superheated into lava which spread out around her much faster than any lava had a right to.

Reacting as quickly as possible, I did the only thing that came to mind, and threw my katana several metres in front of me, and used it as something to kick off of to turn around and run away. I paused for a short moment, looking regretfully at my katana as the lava swallowed it up, turning it into slag. I waited for the lava to cool, glaring angrily at Kurotsuchi from across her moat of liquid rock. Once enough hard patches formed, lightning chakra crackled through my legs, and I shot forward, using the patches as stepping stones. As I reached her, I dropped down, sliding forward to take her legs out, forcing her to jump. My hand shot up, grabbing her ankle, and swinging her down against the ground as hard as I could. While she was dazed, I tried to flip around, and hammer kick her in her stomach. Kurotsuchi rolled out from under it, my ankle slamming against the ground. I popped back up to my feet, taking a couple steps back to reassess my opponent. Clearly she was much more talented than I had originally thought, though she clearly had underestimated me in the forest. The majority of her skill seemed to lie in her skill with her ninjutsu, clearly capable of using Fire, Earth, and Lava manipulation, all of which mostly focused on large scale destructive jutsu. I threw a kunai directly at her, immediately following it. When she deflected the kunai, I blinked behind her, pulling my right arm back, and launching it forward, trying to hit her in the back of her head, and succeeding, sending her rolling away across the black igneous rock. However, as she was rolling away, she flashed through hand seals in a display of ninjutsu skill and discipline that I could not match. As she was rolling, she managed to right herself, and slam her hands on the ground as she slid farther away from me, her momentum carrying her a few meters back.

I tensed to shoot forward again, only to slowly let all the tension out of my muscles when large spikes, easily several feet taller than me, erupted from the ground around Kurotsuchi, forcing me to back up several meters to keep from getting impaled. The various concentric circles of her spikes then started to rotate, all going different speeds, and some going opposite directions from others. I watched the jutsu with wide eyes, trying to discern a pattern from the seemingly orderless chaos.

"Why did you attack me Kurotsuchi?" I asked, stalling for time, but also genuinely interested as several possible reasons popped into my head. A plan was slowly starting to form itself in my head, considering multiple possible approaches.

"You embarrassed me. I underestimated you, and you beat me with little difficulty, even after defeating my comrade. I cannot let that hang on my shoulders. I could not stand the looks my grandfather was giving me, knowing that he was disappointed in me for losing so easily to some like Konoha ninja who plays at being a member of Anbu!" She was screaming at me by the end, her eyes filled with rage, as she made a single handsign, and the spikes of rock exploded, sending chunks of rock away from her in all directions as she screamed. Tensing, I brought my hands up, lightning flickering through my arms and legs. The wall of dust and rock reached me barely a heartbeat later, and I found myself ducking and dodging for my life. Any rocks I couldn't dodge were kicked or punched, and vaporized by a release of lightning chakra. However, I was only able to keep it up for a couple seconds before the dust got into my eyes, forcing me to close my eyes, and bring my arms up in front of my face and around my head to protect it from flying debris, dropping to the ground quickly.

I could feel the small rocks and pieces of dirt making innumerable small cuts all over my arms, torso, and legs, and felt more than a few larger pieces of rock hit me somewhere with bone bending force at the least, although it was hard to tell if any bones had been broken at the moment. The explosion couldn't have lasted more than twenty seconds, and yet, it felt like an eternity. When it ended, I jumped up, bleeding from my cuts, and staggering slightly from ribs that had definitely been cracked. Nonetheless, I raised my hands, fully prepared to continue the fight, when I saw that Kurotsuchi, while slumping with fatigue, had already finished more hand seals and was locked in a snake seal, as two large slabs of rock rose up on either side of me.

"If you make another move, Anbu wannabe, I will sandwich you between stone." She said, menacingly, glaring at me with her pink eyes that seemed to suck me into them. I very slowly lowered my hands, pulling my mask off my face slowly, and just stood there, staring back at her unemotionally, looking her up and down very slowly before I took a step forward. "Stop moving, you bastard! I'll kill you!" I very slowly took another step, and another, and another, before I stood right in front of her, and smiled dangerously.

"You don't have enough chakra to do that. You're straining yourself past your limits just to keep those slabs up." I then took a step backwards, my smile dropping as my shoulders slumped with fatigue, holding a hand up to my face, watching it tremble. "For that matter, I'm surprising myself just by continuing to stand." I lowered my hand and a genuine, though tired, smile crept across my face. Out of nowhere, a fist slammed into my face, whipping my head to the right. I slowly brought my head back around, massaging my my neck slowly and sheepishly.

"I still hate you, you bastard." Was the last thing that Kurotsuchi said to me before she walked off, face clouded with rage as she glanced back several times, her gait closer to a stumble than a walk as a result of her fatigue. When I was sure that she had left, I sat down heavily on the ground, grunting in pain as my ribs protested my movements. I very slowly lay down on my back, my arms wrapped around my midsection to cushion my ribs. I lay that way for a long while until Asuma showed up to make sure I wasn't dead. He was able to use his fairly limited knowledge of medical ninjutsu to patch my ribs up, since they weren't injured much, although one rib had a crack that took him several minutes to fix. By the end, my ribs still ached, but I could at least move, and my ribs should be fine after a day or two of rest.

Asuma and I went back to our hotel room, and spent five more days there before team Ten was released, and we were allowed to leave. We left the day after their release from the hospital, escorted to our exit by Han and Kurotsuchi's genin team. We left on the side of the village opposite where we originally came in, so many days ago. I couldn't help but notice the looks that Kurotsuchi sent me the entire team, though no one on their team said anything to mine. Her glances seemed filled with conflicting emotions, though I don't pretend to be able to read people I barely know, especially just by analyzing their glances. She was angry, obviously, but she also had another emotion present. It was close to admiration, but not quite. Perhaps respect? But that would require her to respect not only a Konoha ninja, but a 'wanna-be-Anbu'.

As we were leaving, the Tsuchikage stopped us as Chouji opened the door, and pointedly got Asuma's attention. "Tell that old bastard of a father you have that Iwa will be sending a team to the Chunin exams this year." He smiled evilly at me as he told Asuma this. Asuma, obviously taken aback by the Tsuchikage's declaration, simply nodded before he ushered the four of us out of the office and led us to the side of the mountain range opposite where we had entered, where we waited while a couple of Iwa shinobi opened a hole in the mountain for us to walk through.

We hurried through, and continued on our journey towards Iron country. While we were going at a fairly quick clip, we experienced little obstacles, the most dangerous encounter we had being an overzealous wolf who had clearly lost his pack. A quick slap across the muzzle from Chouji sent the wolf scurrying off into the the mountains and hills. We traveled west for roughly two days before we finally slowed down. Asuma signalled to us, and we all came to a halt for a moment before we started forward again at a much more leisurely pace, barely above a quick jog.

About an hour after we slowed down, I started to see shadows darting between the boulders that had become more and more plentiful as we approached the border of Earth Country. A chill started to settle into the air as we got closer and closer to the seemingly perpetually cold Iron Country, forcing us all to don heavier travelling cloaks to ward off the cold. It wasn't long after we put on our cloaks that the bandits decided to attack. They jumped out of the bushes around us, easily twenty, possibly even thirty of them, all rushing at us recklessly with no obvious patterns or plan of attack behind their assault. Of course, our response was to immediately counter-engage them, Asuma, Chouji and I rushing forward to them, as Ino and Shikamaru both stayed back, flipping through hand seals.

Right before we reached the bandits, one of them stiffened suddenly, before taking the kanabo in his hand, and brutally slamming it into the back of one of his fellow bandit's heads, dropping him instantly. Moments later, a group of about five bandits all stopped dead in their tracks. A cursory glance downward saw that their shadows had all linked. Chouji raised his hand as it grew to startling proportions before slamming his hand down on the group as the shadows all slithered back to their owners, heartbeats before they were all crushed to death. The traitorous bandit continued to swing about himself wildly with his club, smacking any and every bandit within reach, before he slumped suddenly, straightening back up as another bandit separated his head from his shoulders with a very chipped and battle hardened katana. Asuma was easily taking on half the bandits himself, killing a bandit with every swipe of his knuckle knives.

I disgusted myself. I blinked around ten of them, killing them all with a kunai before they even had a moment to react. Ten men. All dead in what, to them, was hardly more than a second, but to me, felt like a minute, easily, the combination of Shunshin and adrenaline speeding up all my senses, seeming to slow down time. I stood quietly behind the men, watching as their stunned eyes looked up to the sky, open wide in surprise as their crimson blood stained the snow underneath them, as the beads of crimson slid down the edge of my kunai to fall down and stain more snow red, as disgust seeped deep into my soul to stain it forever the color of blood-stained snow.


	11. Chapter 11

**Hey guys, welcome back, reminder, I don't own Naruto. Also, when you're done, if you liked it, drop a follow, or a favorite, and review. Thanks!**

 **Previously:**

 _I disgusted myself. I blinked around ten of them, killing them all with a kunai before they even had a moment to react. Ten men. All dead in what, to them, was hardly more than a second, but to me, felt like a minute, easily, the combination of Shunshin and adrenaline speeding up all my senses, seeming to slow down time. I stood quietly behind the men, watching as their stunned eyes looked up to the sky, open wide in surprise as their crimson blood stained the snow underneath them, as the beads of crimson slid down the edge of my kunai to fall down and stain more snow red, as disgust seeped deep into my soul to stain it forever the color of blood-stained snow._

We walked in silence the rest of the way to the Three Wolves in silence, the members of Team ten reflecting on their first kills, as I reflected on the ease with which we killed those bandits. I barely noticed as we entered the mountain formation, and when we were escorted to the rooms that we would be staying in, I simply sat on my bed, my cloak folded up and placed on top of a desk in the corner, my Anbu mask lying next to it on the desk.

I only looked up when a samurai knocked on my door, telling me that I was expected at dinner with the rest of Team ten, apparently to meet someone fairly important. We walked down a couple hallways, then some stairs, then more hallways, before we reached a pair of modest oak doors that were flanked by several samurai, all fully armed and armored, and all looking fairly intimidating.

The doors opened to reveal Team ten all sitting on one side of a table that could easily fit eight people on each side, with more than enough room to add at least two more chairs to each side. The table itself was made of a dark, polished wood, and unadorned by any table pieces or table clothes, and was only set for six people. Four settings where Team ten sat, and two directly opposite them. I took the seat directly across from Chouji, sitting farther from the door, with Shikamaru diagonal to my left, Asuma diagonal to the right, and Ino to the right of him.

It was no more than two minutes before our host arrived, an obviously older man with long grey hair that fell down close to his waist and bandages around the top of his head. Laughter and smile lines surrounded his eyes, while a grey goatee fell from his chin to his chest, with a long grey Fu Manchu mustache framing his mouth, which was curled up in a welcoming smile. He wore a light purple kimono and sandals, and carried a katana on his left hip.

He walked with the ease, grace, and restrained power of a seasoned warrior, someone who could easily give any taijutsu or kenjutsu master one of the hardest fights of their lives. However, he did not appear to want to approach us threateningly. It was far more likely that after many decades of walking through battlefields, constantly on edge, had left his body constantly prepared for an attack.

As he approached the table, we all stood up out of respect for our host, but sat down when he shook his head good-naturedly, and motioned for us to sit back down. When we had all sat down, he took the seat next to me, and, with a motion to one of the guards, several males in simple white tunics and trousers came out carrying various bowls and trays in front of us, which included onigiri, some simple noodles that one could add to a number of broths, there was a bowl of rice, and, much to Chouji's delight, some barbecued meat, just to name a few.

We spent several minutes serving ourselves and eating with our host, who had introduced himself to us as Mifune. He and Asuma spent several long minutes discussing various politics, some talk of miscellaneous trade deals and contracts, as well as various people in Konoha that Mifune knew personally, like the Sandaime Hokage, a man named Danzo who both talked of cautiously, and the Hokage's advisors, who were named Homura and Koharu. After a bit of talk between Asuma and Mifune, Asuma started fielding questions from his Genin, all of whom had been bursting at the seams to know about what and who Asuma and Mifune were talking.

As Asuma went about answering those questions, Mifune turned his head to me, instantly noting my forced interest in the conversation. He gave me a quick once-over, staring at me very intently while I pointedly ignored him, focusing on my food instead. I jerked up in shock, my gaze snapping to meet Mifune's, where I was met with a kind and comforting visage.

"A first kill should not haunt you as yours does, child. I do not know the circumstances that forced you to take another's life, but I can see that you can and will persevere, because you have to, for you will have to take innumerable lives as a warrior, and if they all weigh this heavily on you, then you will not live to see fourteen. And what would that do to those who care for you, or those who may come to meet who would care for you?" And with that, he turned back to his food, leaving me to stare at a man who just gave me oddly comforting advice.

The rest of the dinner was fairly uneventful, since there was little food left after Mifune spoke to me, and we all retired to our rooms when the food was gone, after thanks to Mifune, of course.

After dinner, I went to go lie down, to just try to get a good night's rest, hopefully be able to shake off the thoughts that had plagued me all day so far. I lay in my bed, staring up at the ceiling silently, my arms splayed off to either side while I tried to empty my mind. After failing for several hours to find embrace in sleeps arms, I gave up, deciding to train, with the hope that bodily exhaustion would quiet the thoughts in my head.

I wandered aimlessly for a bit, before finding a secluded dojo that some of the samurai would clearly use during the day. Because of the late hour, however, it was thankfully devoid of other people. I started to languidly stretch, before walking up a wall and around on the ceiling for a little while before walking to the rack that held several wooden practice katanas. I picked up several, trying out the weights and balancing, before finding one that I felt most comfortable using.

I very slowly moved through the katas that Cat had taught me for the Anbu style, though it never really did work all that well with my katana, being that it was longer and heavier than the chokutos or ninjatos that the Anbu usually favored. It had taken far more time than I had liked to adapt the style to the sword that I used, but it had worked well enough when I still had a sword.

I was finishing up a kata on one of the dummies that I happened to notice on one side of the dojo, ending with a stab that pushed the tip of the wooden sword into the torso of the dummy when I finally noticed that I was not alone anymore.

"Katanas should very rarely be stabbed into someone so frivolously. Leave that for those who use the swords shorter, sturdier counterparts like the ninjato. A stab such as that, should the target have hidden armor, could very well bend and shatter the blade, which could be disastrous for you." I turned to see Mifune standing in the entrance to the dojo, hands clasped behind his back, and walking in towards me. I pulled the sword out of the dummy, the tip dropping to point at the ground. "And besides, stabbing is a clumsy action, and leaves you open for easy counters, which you likely could not defend against." He looked me up and down, his lips pursed slightly, before he spoke again. "Though that is easily forgiven, since I doubt you have not learned a true kenjutsu style, yes? Only the style that your Anbu use, which is not a true kenjutsu style, correct?" At my nod, he sighed and smiled.

"Well, you're at least quick, and seem to handle that training katana well enough." He pulled a scroll out of his sleeves. "You seem bright, and an old acquaintance of mine called in a favor. Although, for some reason, he said to pass along the message to not open the scroll until you left here." He threw the scroll to me, and turned to walk out.

Before he could walk far, however, I decided to find my voice for the first time around the walking samurai legend. "Thank you, Mifune-sama. Your words, though not what I wanted to hear, I now realize were what I needed to hear. And thank you, again, for this scroll. I don't know who told you to give this to me, but I will do what I can to repay both you and them, if it is within my abilities."

The samurai just chuckled as he walked out of the room, leaving as his parting words, "You don't owe me anything, I didn't contribute anything to that scroll. And as for my advice, I just don't like seeing children die. I've seen it happen too much already."

I gripped the scroll tight, confused by its origin, as well as Mifune's willingness to help despite his offhanded explanation. I walked back to my room, setting the scroll on a table next to my bed, before lying down. My mind at peace for the first time that day, I was able to find comfort in the embrace of sleep.

We left the next day, boarding a boat to take us down to a port near Sunagakure, to drop off the third and final scroll that we were to deliver, though we would not reach Sunagakure itself, merely meeting a Sunagakure squad who would take the scroll off of our hands, before we were free to go back to Konoha.

The boat ride was long, taking roughly a week, and boring, even with all the stops we made at small ports along the coast on our way. We spent most of our time on the boat resting, or, in Asuma and Shikamaru's case, playing game after game of shogi. I tried playing against each of them a couple times, but found myself soundly outmaneuvered and outplayed by Asuma's vastly superior experience, and Shikamaru's genius. It was until a day before we were to make our stop near Sunagakure that I finally opened the scroll, and found a storage sealing matrix, much to my lack of surprise.

When activated, the seal spat several things out onto my bed. One was a note that I initially set aside, more intrigued by the other contents of the scroll. Another item was a pure black chakra metal katana with a spiralling guard, and the kanji for 'Strength' embossed on the bottom of the metal hilt. The katana was quickly slid into the sheath that had been leaned against the table next to the bed, and placed back against the table. The third and final item was, much to my chagrin, another scroll, though it was not another sealing scroll, but rather a scroll that contained extremely detailed notes on Kirigakure's kenjutsu, used by their Seven Ninja Swordsmen and their apprentices, the Silent Killing technique.

Finally looking at the note, it seemed that the entire scroll was from Zabuza.

'To Jeremiah, if you lived long enough to see Mifune, I'm actually mildly proud. Not all that much, though. You were strong when we met in Wave, and I know that you will likely be much stronger when next we meet. When I met you in Wave, you reminded me a lot of a Kunoichi I am very proud to have once fought alongside, and she would have wanted me to help you if I had the chance. If you become half the shinobi she is, you will be remarkable, and I want you to remember what I told you in Wave. Come find me when you want my help, though know that it will not be easy.

-Zabuza Momochi'

The scroll I got from Zabuza was sealed back in the original scroll, with the note. That scroll got put in my weapons pouch, while the sword had yet to leave it's sheath, and was never more than a couple feet from my person. We met with the Sunagakure squad after a day wait in the harbortown, before Asuma gave them the scroll he was carrying for them, and we were able to leave.

The trek across Wind country was much slower than perhaps any of us but Shikamaru would have liked, though it was a very short distance to travel, due to the high winds, the resistance from the sand when we ran, and the desert's penchant for constantly placing sandstorms in our way. Swear to kami, those things just jumped out at use from nowhere. We were able to push through all the sandstorms, albeit at a very slow pace, and with frequent stops in earthen domes that Asuma would make for us. I would spend these breaks reading from the scroll, and, when given the chance, practice some of the more basic stances and katas that I could find.

Once we left Sunagakure, however, we found ourselves in River country, constantly having to make chakra-enhance leaps across the fast-flowing, wide, rivers that winded through the landscape like branches on a tree. Around two days were spent taking huge, flying leaps across rivers that flowed too quickly to safely stick to with chakra.

Once we entered Fire country, however, the pace picked up considerably, only taking a couple days for us to reach Konoha. A collective sigh of happiness was heard from the entire squad when the giant wooden gates came into sight, taking a quick stop for Asuma to talk to the gate guards, before we sped off to the Hokage's office for our debrief.

The debrief seemed to take no time, and the Hokage's slightly inquisitive gaze, when directed at me, was quickly sent away with a quick eye smile. Asuma and his team were dismissed before the Hokage told me that Kakashi wanted to see me at training ground seven to talk to me.

Taking a quick stop at a restaurant along the way to training ground seven, I ended my morning with quick hello to Kakashi as I stopped next to him as he sat on one of three wooden pillars. He looked up from his ubiquitous orange book, throwing me a quick peace sign, before putting his book away and jumping down from his pillar. I finally noticed team Seven as Naruto and Sasuke stopped sparring, and Sakura let innumerable leaves drop from her face and arms, to walk over.

"How did your spar go?" Kakashi asked Naruto and Sasuke, to which the latter simply grunted while the former yelled, "It was going great! I was totally kicking the teme's ass before he cheated and used the Sharingan, dattebayo!"

Kakashi tilted his head to the side, his eye crinkling to express a smile before he turned to Sakura, who was panting slightly. Sensing the unspoken question, Sakura also smiled before going off on a bit of a rant about how, like she expected, adding more and more leaves made the chakra control exercise harder and harder. When she was done talking, Kakashi looked at me for a long moment before looking back at his Genin team.

"Well, my lovely little Genin, ask and you shall receive. The lovely Anbu Cat has graciously allowed us to borrow Jeremiah here until he gets another mission that takes him out of the village, seeing as you two," pointed look at Sasuke and Naruto, who both looked to be suppressing joy, "wanted to train with him again so much. We won't be taking any missions this afternoon, but we will be training until about dinnertime. If any of you want help, or for me to watch over a sparring match, tell me. I'll be right here."

Kakashi barely had a chance to stop speaking before Naruto loudly yelled at me and Kakashi "Kaka-sensei, I want to spar with Jeremiah!"

With a low humming noise, Kakashi gave his consent, and hopped up on the middle pillar, Sasuke and Sakura taking the pillars on either side of him, to watch.

Naruto and I walked several paces away from them, keeping a fair distance between us to start off. A leaf fluttered down in between us, listlessly drifting down towards the ground. Birds were chirping, the sounds from the village distant and muted. Naruto looked the most serious I had ever seen him, his face suddenly devoid of emotion. The leaf, almost forgotten, touched down on the grass, and the training ground exploded in action.

Drawing my sword in one swift motion, I quickly dispatched the closest couple orange-clad clones that burst into existence in front of me, creating a wall of smoke in front of me that burst apart to reveal more clones dashing at me, in a seemingly heedless attack. A single slash was easily able to remove several clones from existence, only adding to the smokescreen every time. I spent what seemed like the next eternity using every ounce of kenjutsu skill I had to avoid being overrun by the clones, even using some of the more fluid stances and movements that I had been able to glean in my short time with the scroll Zabuza had gifted me.

Finally fed up with fighting endless amounts of clones, I channeled lightning chakra through my katana, finding it to be very easy, before slashing in front of me, releasing the chakra as I did so, praying my idea worked. Thankfully, it worked as intended, the slash itself killing several clones, before the sparking chakra exploded outward, cutting horizontally through clone after clone, dispersing some of the smoke as it did so, before it petered out, leaving me a good view of the original Naruto, his eyes closed, likely digesting the memories of his clones, before he shot forward through the smoke, forcing me to sheath my katana, and drop the weights from around my ankles.

Naruto reached me with his fist cocked back, leaving me just barely an instant to raise my arms to guard before his freakishly strong punch, only aided by his speed, slammed into my arms with bone-bending force. The smoke around us visibly blowing back from the force of the impact, I quickly lowered my guard and grabbed Naruto, and, using his own momentum, turned and threw him over my shoulder, causing him to bounce against the ground before he regained his footing.

I immediately shot towards him, rising up right in his face, forcing him to raise his guard, before I blinked around behind him, dropping low, and kicking his feet out from under him, forcing him to roll away from me when his shoulders hit the ground. I straightened up, waiting for Naruto to attack. I didn't have to wait long.

He ran at me again, much more conservative than the last time, obviously trying not to telegraph his attack. When he reached me, his fist shot out for my face, but my hand came up, slapping it off to the side at the last second, diverting the punch to avoid unnecessary bone abuse. A flurry of punches and kicks followed, all diverted or dodged at the last second, ruffling my hair with the displaced air, before Naruto finally overextended on a punch, letting me dip into his guard and land several hits on his ribs before he jumped back, holding his ribs and smiling.

"Yeah! Now this fight is really getting started!" Naruto yelled at me, smiling like an idiot. "C'mon, then, Jeremiah! Give me all you've got!"

I settled slightly, my legs sliding a little farther apart, my arms tensing, before I shot forward, an arm cocked back for a punch, before dropping my entire body down, then exploding back up. My arms wrapped around Naruto's waist, my shoulder in his gut, lifting him up off of the ground, then slamming him down, hard, on the ground.

Not one to be outdone, despite having the air forced out of his lungs, Naruto brought his fists down on my back in a hammer blow, forcing me roll off of him, and pop up a short distance away. Naruto got up a little slower than I did, still smiling, though with a slightly more feral aspect to it. He laughed again, enjoying the fight a little too much, which I suppose could be said about most of the fights he is in.

As Naruto charged at me again, I realized that the longer this fight went on, the more the fight would favor the stamina freak, not me. After all, skill can only do so much against someone who doesn't have the decency to stay on the ground after hits that would put down normal genin. I shot forward to meet his charge, eyes narrowing as his grin seemed to grow even wider.

Naruto's first punch he threw met only air, as I flipped over him. The second I landed, my hands lit up with lightning, and I turned just in time to lean back, just barely avoiding the back hand Naruto had swung back at me as he turned. I spent the next several seconds dodging strikes that I had no interest ever letting touch me. Every strike that passed by me, however, was answered with a quick electrified tap on the arm, until Naruto shouldn't have been able to feel at least his right arm, if he hadn't also lost feeling in his left arm as well.

Dodging the latest swing, though it was much less directed than previous strike, I stepped in past Naruto's guard, releasing my chakra from my hands, and landing punch after punch on his face, until I finally spun around him, my leg extending and snapping out to catch him in the middle of his back, and launching him forward to bounce along the ground in a cloud of dust.

Waiting patiently with my guard up, I watched the cloud carefully, not wanting to get sneak attacked. The dust settled, at long last, revealing Naruto, pushing himself up on one arm so he could look at me, that ubiquitous smile still present.

"One day, Jeremiah, I'm gonna beat the shit out of you and the teme! The both of you!" He yelled, with conviction, albeit no real anger or hatred behind it. I heard Sasuke's humph from behind me, and turned in time to see Kakashi smile and ruffle Sasuke's hair, further annoying him.

"Right, well, that'll have to wait. I would very much like to get training in today, that isn't sparring," I said, walking over and putting my weights back on, breathing heavier than I would care to admit. I straightened back up, and saw Kakashi smiling at me. "Get back to training, my lovely little Genin, I would like to talk to Jeremiah for a moment." Team Seven went back to training separately, albeit seemingly reluctantly.

"That's not the sword you had before you left, nor is the style you used the Anbu style that I'm sure Cat taught you, as that is the only style she uses." His gaze seemed accusatory, though not angry, more confused and interested. Connecting the dots behind what he'd said, I realized that not only was Kakashi an Elite Jonin, he at the very least used to be an Anbu, and almost definitely knew who Cat was, personally.

I scratched the back of my head sheepishly before I answered."Well, my old katana sorta got melted to slag in some lava, but I got this, and a scroll on kenjutsu, as a gift when I was in Iron country. Mifune said that the style I had been using was much better suited for the ninjatos and chokutos that the Anbu favor, rather than katanas. Then he gave me a scroll with the sword and the kenjutsu scroll, and told me it was a gift from a friend." I decided to leave out Zabuza's involvement, not wanting it to seem any more suspicious than it already was.

Kakashi took a long time to digest this, before nodding slowly, patting me on the shoulder, and smiling. "Well, let's get back to training, why don't we? Oh, and tomorrow, show up at eight am for morning training." Kakashi and I walked off to continue the day's work.

 **One Week Later:**

I stood in the Hokage's office, listening as he told team 8 and me that we were going to be escorting a diplomat back to Tea Country, to somewhere called Degarashi Port. We were told that two weeks at most, should be enough time to get him to Degarashi Port, and that it should only take a week or so for us to get back to Konoha. A very pointed look at Kurenai from Sarutobi said that we had to back by then, likely for something important that he didn't want to talk to the Genin about.

 **Three weeks Later:**

We had gotten back to Konoha with no issues other than some mild fatigue. Sarutobi gave us our debrief, and Team 8 was dismissed, with Kurenai leading them out, saying that she had something to talk to them about. I stayed behind because of a pointed look and a hand motion towards me that led me to stand in front of the Hokage's desk, alone, until the door shut behind Team 8, and Cat appeared to the right of me.

"Well, Jeremiah, all of the Genin for your graduating class have completed their first C rank mission. If you wish, when they start taking C ranks again, you may join them. However, that is not what I wanted to talk to you about. You see, what Team 8 is about to find out, and the other Genin teams undoubtedly already know, is that, in two weeks time, the Chunin exams will take place, here in Konoha. The other Genin are probably thinking over whether or not they want to be in the Exam, or are filling out their exam form. However, you are a special case. Happily, no Genin have died in the last six months, but that does mean that you cannot take the exams, as there is no team for you to be on, and no available registered Jonin senseis to register your team." Sarutobi paused, giving me a long look.

"I would like you to join the Anbu as soon as possible, but the minimum rank requirement is Chunin." When he started that sentence, I was happy, but my mood fell drastically as the finished his thought.

"But," before going on, Sarutobi closed his eyes, rubbing the bridge of his nose slowly. "that does not mean you cannot be treated as one while we wait for it to become more official. It would hardly be the first time that we had bent the rules for young ninja. Naruto and Kakashi are both examples, though in extremely different ways. So, during the exam, you will be shadowing Cat as she goes about her duties of being one of my personal guard. You have two weeks to train as you wish. I hear Kakashi and his team would be welcome to have you back with them."

Nodding to show that I agreed with both his plan, and his not so subtle hint about training with Kakashi, I left the office in a quick shunshin, appearing at training ground seven, right as Kakashi finished up his lecture about the Chunin exams. Naruto was looking happier than I had ever seen him, Sasuke still had that smirk on his face, and Sakura was looking nervous, though it quickly passed.

Naruto jumped up to greet me the second Kakashi was done talking, running over with his form clutched in his hand, Sasuke following close behind, while Sakura went to talk to Kakashi. "Hey, Jeremiah, guess what! Kakashi-sensei nominated our team for the Chunin exams! We're going to do great, I bet I'll get promoted before the teme, though! Are you going to be in the exams?"

I took off my mask, smiling at Naruto, "Nah, I'm not about that whole promotion life. I'm okay where I am right now." Sasuke huffed in disbelief, and stared at me incredulously. "Yeah, right. Nobody gets Anbu training without planning to join them, and to join you have to be at least a Chunin."

I rubbed the back of my head sheepishly, "Ah, you got me, I don't have a team to take the exam with." I laughed lightly. "Well, there's always next time, yeah? Anyway, you guys doing any training today?"

"Hell yeah, we are! Kakashi-sensei said we wouldn't have to do any D-ranks until after the exams, since we need to train to make sure we can crush everyone else in the exams!" Naruto was practically jumping up and down from excitement while he said this, his smile threatening to split his face in two.

Kakashi walked over just then, saying "That's the goal, but you should never underestimate your opponents, Naruto. The Chunin Exams are not easy. Be careful about overplaying your hand, and getting caught stuck fighting someone you have no way to defeat."

Naruto looked a little sullen for a moment, before brightening back up, "Well, that's all the more reason to train as hard as I can now, so I don't run into someone I can't beat, right?" Kakashi just smiled and ruffled Naruto's hair. I smiled as well, before stepping off to the side slowly, and finding a small clearing where I could start training while Team Seven finished up talking.

"You know, Naruto really looks up to you. So does Sasuke, though Naruto would admit it far easier than Sasuke would." I turned around, confused at hearing Kakashi's voice. At my inquiring gaze, Kakashi said, "Don't worry, I'm a shadow clone. The real me is still with my students. The real me is going to work with Team Seven to make sure that all the techniques that they use are mastered to the highest level they can be expected to reach at age thirteen, helping them with chakra control, and maybe teaching them some new techniques."

"So, did you just come here to tell me that, or… what?" I said, staring at the shadow clone, my mask hanging from my waist. I couldn't really see any other reason for the shadow clone to be there.

"Well, just because I already have a genin team to teach, doesn't mean I can't teach you as well." He smiled at me serenely, tilting his head slightly. "Besides, you use the Anbu taijutsu now, right? I seem to remember you using it in Wave. I may know a thing or two about that particular taijutsu. And when I'm not helping you with your taijutsu, I'll leave, and you can feel free to practice your kenjutsu in peace."

With a nod of my head, I dropped into one of the basic stances for my taijutsu, and went through a number of taijutsu katas with Kakashi fixing one thing, then having me repeat the kata over and over, making sure I got that one thing correct, and continued to keep my movements and stances correct the more things he pointed out. The Anbu style that Cat had taught me seemingly eons ago was far more brutal and direct than the taijutsu I had been using while I was in the Academy. It focused on, above all else, not wasting any movement, and not staying in any one particular place for too long. Grapples and holds were in some of the katas, but were not emphasized, as they often kept you too close to your opponent for too long.

The next two weeks consisted of waking up at dawn, and practicing my new kenjutsu katas until Team Seven and Kakashi would show up, where I would spend the next several hours doing physical exercises with Team Seven, increasing my weights every other day or whenever I started getting used to the weight, then a break for lunch, then from lunch until dinner, which would usually be around five hours, I would practice my taijutsu under the watchful and approving gaze of Kakashi, who would always end the day by taking the four of us somewhere to dinner.

The next two hours or so were always dedicated to reading through scrolls, be they the Silent Killing scroll that Zabuza sent me, or some scrolls from the shinobi library about chakra control. All in all, those two weeks were some of the best weeks of my life.

I was called to the Hokage's office very early on the day of the Chunin exams, my mask covering half my face as usual, and Cat standing beside me while we waited for Sarutobi to enter the office.

Sarutobi came in a couple minutes later, already looking annoyed, mumbling something about some old, one-eyed bastard. He looked at us as he came in, smiling softly in his grandfatherly way at us.

"Hello, both of you. Cat, you know what to do already, but I'm going to explain this for the benefit of Jeremiah. You are to stay near the Chunin exams and monitor the situation in the testing areas to the best of your abilities. The second part of the exams will put a limit on what and where you can watch, but that's fine. Do not involve yourself, Cat, unless absolutely necessary. Jeremiah, don't involve yourself at all. Genin are not allowed to involve themselves in this exam unless they are actually participating in the exam. Only Chunin and Jonin can involve themselves in any way. Understood?" He asked, looking very pointedly at me, until I nodded. "Good. This exam has a number of entrants from villages we normally don't get participants from. Most notably, we have a team from Iwagakure, one from Kusagakure, a couple from the very new Otogakure, and we actually have more teams participating than normal this year. The teams from Iwagakure and Otogakure should be watched most closely, obviously, though the team from Kusagakure should also be monitored if possible, as they haven't participated in the last couple exams, regardless of location. Do you understand your duty?" Sarutobi asked, receiving two curt nods in response. "Good. Dismissed." Sarutobi waved his hand, and we both disappeared in a shunshin I followed Cat to the roof of a building opposite a seemingly nondescript building.

Looking through the windows directly opposite us, I could see all the different Genin teams assemble in the lecture hall style room. Team Seven entered a minute later, with Sasuke looking a bit worse for wear, but seemed fine. Looking through the room, I saw the team from Kusagakure, their headbands shining proudly to distinguish them from the rest, though one Genin seemed to look over and lick her lips when I looked at her. Ignoring it, I continued scanning, and saw the Iwa team, a bit surprised to see Kurotsuchi standing with the other members of her team, her pink eyes boring holes into everyone she looked at.

I shook my head a couple seconds later, trying to get the pink eyes out of my head, and continued scanning the room, finally locating the Otogakure teams when one of them attacked a Konoha participant, cracking the grey haired boys glasses. At that moment, a terrifying man burst into the room via smoke, visibly yelling at the Genin present. He wore a long black trench coat over a black shirt and pants, while the scars on his face instantly distinguishing him as a veteran of, frankly, some really bad shit. Cat spoke up from next to me, saying, "That's Ibiki Morino. He's our head of torture and interrogation, and heads the Konoha division of Lord Jiraiya's intelligence network. He was captured and tortured one time, not sure why or how, but it left him with some gruesome scars, and a story he refuses to tell anyone."

We sat watching as a dozen or so Chunin appeared behind Ibiki, and lined the walls after passing out paper and pencil to every exam participant, once they had all sat down.

Ibiki gave a short talk, before motioning for everyone to begin, while he started scanning the crowd of participants. From where we sat, Cat and I could see just about every student in the classroom cheating in some way, shape, or form. In only ten minutes, students started getting dismissed fairly consistently until about forty minutes had gone by. At this point, Ibiki started making some big speech that was visibly pissing off a number of the participants, though Ibiki looked unconcerned.

My attention was drawn away, however, when I heard from my side, "Awww, little kitty-Cat, I didn't expect to see you here, how've you been?" I turned in time to see a purple haired woman wearing a light brown trench coat over mesh armor, a brown skirt, and protectors covering her shins, and nothing else. Seeing the purple-haired woman forcibly burying the back of Cat-san's head in between her breasts made me very thankful that my mask covered my nostrils.

"Hello Mitarashi-san, I have been fine, thank you, but I'm currently on duty." Cat deadpanned, her head not turning at all to acknowledge the woman behind her, her eyes staying glued to the exam room, where Naruto was yelling Ibiki.

"Aw, kitty-Cat, you're always on duty. We never talk anymore." Mitarashi-san said, pouting her lip in feigned sadness.

"Mitarashi-san, I will buy you dango when the second part of the exam is over, but I really do have work to do." Cat said, trying to push Mitarashi off of her without turning around, which proved to be very difficult, as evidenced by Mitarashi's lack of movement.

"Oooh, just bring the dango to me at the Forest of Death, I'm the proctor of the Second part! Well, I have to go now!" Mitarashi said, dashing off without a goodbye, before she appeared moments later in the exam room, having entered through breaking one of the windows.

I looked a Cat, a question on my lips, before she looked at me and said, "That was Anko Mitarashi, she works for Ibiki, yes, she is a Jonin, technically, yes, that is how she acts all the time when not on a mission, and yes, though I would like not to, we are going to actually stop and buy her dango."

Shutting my mouth, I looked back at the exam room to find all the genin finding their teams and following Anko out of the room. I was happy to see that Team Seven had made it through, as well as Teams Eight and Ten, and another two Konoha teams that I did not recognize. I saw that the Kusagakure team, and the Otogakure teams had made it through. I looked for a long moment before I found a pair of pink eyes scanning the people in front of her. I smiled involuntarily before making my face impassive and following after Cat.

The dango shop worker seemed happy to accommodate Cat, and even seemed to recognize her on sight. No words were exchanged but he disappeared into the back for a minute, before coming out with a box that he handed to Cat, after taking the money she handed him, and smiling. Cat must have to buy dango for Anko fairly often.

We arrived just in time to see the girl from Kusagakure that creeped me out hand Anko her kunai with her tongue. Anko, looking visibly confused and weirded out, walked off to stand in front of the gathered Genin, and gave them a speech about what to do to be able to enter the Forest of Death. When she was done, all the Genin left in the same direction, towards a couple tents, where they all started to line up.

Anko walked over to the tree we were waiting in, and held her hand out. Cat dropped the box, and Anko deftly caught it, opening it up, and pulling out a dango stick. "Oh, kitty-Cat, you're the best." She said, smiling broadly, before looking over towards the Genin, becoming very serious in an instant.

"That Kusagakure girl gives me a really bad feeling. Something about her screams 'danger' in a way no Genin should. Good crop of Konoha kids, though. Bet most of them will make it through this stage. That Iwa team sure was a surprise to see, though I suppose it was bound to happen eventually. What do you think, kitty-Cat?" She said, looking up at us momentarily.

Cat was quiet for a long moment before she answered. "I think that, if any of us were allowed to go into the exam area and follow the Kusagakure girl, we should. Unfortunately, you and I can't go in unless there is an emergency, Anko, and this one isn't even here, as far as anyone is concerned." Anko just nodded her head at that, clearly having already known that.

Cat waited another long beat, looking over at the Genin that were starting to head towards their gates to enter the Forest of Death. "However, there are a dozen Chunin around the area right now, plus you and I, Anko. If there is a real issue, I know that we can handle it."

A loud shot rang out, and the gates all around the Forest of Death slowly opened, and Genin rushed in the second they could fit through the gap.

Anko took another bite of her dango, "Well, there they go. We'll see them again in five days, regardless of what happens in there."

The next day started off uneventfully. Cat, Anko, and I had all been provided tents to sleep in so that we didn't have to leave the exam area while it was in progress. Not much of anything happened until Sarutobi showed up out of the blue, with four Anbu flanking him, sometime around noon.

He walked over, standing in front of the three of us, radiating anger and frustration. "Did any of the Genin applicants seem odd in any way to the three of you?" He asked, his lips pursing as he looked at all of us. "Which ones?"

When all three of us answered that the Kusagakure kunoichi gave off a bad feeling, Sarutobi let out a very long, drawn out, breath to steady his emotions. "I was afraid to hear that. Some patrolling Anbu found these three bodies on the main road that connects Kusagakure and Konohagakure." When he said that, the Anbu pulled out scrolls and channelled chakra into them, causing four bodies to appear in a puff of smoke, one clearly a Jonin, the other three matched the Kusagakure Genin that were participating in the exams perfectly, but for the kunoichi of the group, whose face was a blank canvas of skin.

Anko immediately recognized what this meant, and started cursing so creatively that most sailors would blush. Somewhere in the constant stream of expletives, I caught something that sounded like, "That snake bastard."

Sarutobi, impassive, simply stood there, waiting for Anko's rant to come to an end. "We aren't completely sure on why he is here, but we do think that he is likely targeting Sasuke. Orochimaru has always been obsessed with Kekkei Genkai, and he is likely here to get the last potentially available sharingan in the world. Anko, go now, try to find and stop him, or at least delay him." Anko didn't even wait to hear anything else, disappearing immediately in a swirl of leaves.

"Cat, take these four and begin searching the forest for both Orochimaru and the other two people who pretended to be Genin. They are likely accomplices in whatever he has planned." He said to Cat, who disappeared with her designated companions.

Stepping forward, I decided to address the Hokage, saying, "Sir, is there anything that I can do? I want to help, if I can." Even from where I stood, I could hear the soft sigh that fell from the Hokage's lips as he turned his gaze skyward, and his words took on a more melancholy tone.

"I cannot, in good conscience, send a boy many decades younger than me directly to face a threat I should have dealt with many years ago. However, I do want you to do something for me, knowing that it may possibly result in a run in with Orochimaru." Turning to look at me, he gazed at me for a beat before I nodded, and he continued. "Team Seven is in the Forest of Death, and likely stand little chance against Orochimaru. Your task is to find them, and, should they require aid against Orochimaru, cause a big enough distraction for the Anbu to find you, and hopefully, together, you all will drive him off without too much injury. If Team Seven does not require your help, you are to stay hidden and follow them, until they can either reach the tower in the middle of the Forest of Death, or Orochimaru shows up."

I turned to leave, but stopped when the Hokage's hand landed on my shoulder. I turned to see Sarutobi standing there, his lips pursed in distaste. "Jeremiah, as a Genin you are not allowed to enter the Forest of Death." His jaw tightened briefly, "However, as of early yesterday, if anyone asks, you were promoted to Chunin. Congratulations. Now go do your duty to the village." I shot off away from him, disappearing into the forest in mere heartbeats, my weights left on the ground behind me.

I started with the gate that I remembered seeing Team Seven enter through, and then ran straight inward through the forest, as Sasuke would likely have seen the merits of getting to the Tower first, just so they knew where it was. They likely then would have gone outwards, trying to find easy fights on tired Genin teams. Almost all of the Konoha teams entered in the same general area of the forest, and Team Seven would not have gone for another Konoha team. So that left just going straight from the tower, and continuing away from where Team Seven entered.

I found them as they were simply walking through the forest, starting to head back towards the tower, having just gotten the scroll they needed, likely from the unconscious Amegakure ninja behind them. I followed them for roughly an hour as they trudged through the forest, before they stopped for a break. I settled into a branch, probably 20 to 30 feet above them while they sat around a very muted fire for a short couple minutes, talking quietly.

An hour or two, Team Seven made another of these stops to eat, as they seemed to be starting to think about the setting sun and the encroaching nighttime. When they were done, they walked for a couple more hours before finally stopping. I stopped in the tree above them, watching them as they seemed to be waiting for something. Moments later, an unnatural, terrible voice chuckled and hissed directly into my right ear, "Kukuku, found you."

I immediately cut off the chakra that was holding me to the branch, whipping shuriken up towards the branch as I fell through the leaves, flipping just in time to land on my feet. Ignoring the shock and confusion that was on Team Seven's faces at my arrival, I turned to face the threat as it dropped through the treetops as well, revealing itself to be the Kusagakure kunoichi, who seemed to almost look through me with bright yellow eyes that almost looked familiar.

The kunoichi sped through hand signs with practiced ease, before biting her thumb, and slamming her palm on the ground in a large plume of smoke. Out of the smoke burst a huge snake, easily capable of swallowing any one of us whole, slamming nose first into Naruto, and continuing to speed off away from us with the blond.

Finding my voice, I looked away from the fallen trees that showed the snake and Naruto's path through the woods, I looked at the kunoichi, eyes widening in fear. "You're Orochimaru." I said, my voice and hands shaking slightly in fear of facing down a living legend. "What do you want? Why are you here?"

A mocking chuckle floated across the space between us, "Kukuku, little Anbu, you know exactly why I'm here, but for those here out of the loop, I'm here for Sasuke. I'm here to give him power beyond his belief." The kunoichi licked her lips, looking pointedly at Sasuke, before letting loose a wave of vile chakra that was keeping us from moving a muscle, while her neck elongated. Her head started moving towards Sasuke, Sakura and I unable to move to do anything helpful.

I bit down on my lip, hard enough to draw blood, drawing my attention away from the oppressive chakra. I jumped forward, drawing my katana as I went, and slashed up and through the kunoichi's neck, right before she could bite down on Sasuke's neck. The decapitated head dropped to the ground, lifeless, before melting into a pile of mud, while the body across from us did the same.

I stepped over to Sasuke, grabbing his shoulders and shaking him, hard. "Wake up, you bastard! I stand no fucking chance on my own, but if you help me, we just might survive!" Sasuke blinked several times, shaking his head, before his gaze met mine defiantly, his eyes flashing red and settling into his spinning Sharingan. He nodded at me, before I turned around in time to see the kunoichi drop down a few feet away from us.

"Kukuku, it's always so cute when they think they stand a chance against me. Oh well, the foolish must learn their place somehow." She smirked at us, licking her lips. "I'll just have to force my mark on to Sasuke-kun, if you're so intent on defying me." I tightened my grip on my katana as Sasuke pulled out a kunai, and dropped into a ready stance.

The kunoichi seemed to appear between us, kicking out at us, to drive us apart. Sasuke, because of his Sharingan, was just barely able to dodge the kick, the kunoichi's foot ruffling the hair that stuck out of the back of his head. I got kicked right in my left shoulder, launching me a couple feet away, spinning in the air, before I righted myself, and skid along the ground for a few feet.

Shunshining forward, my slash, intended to bisect the kunoichi at the waist, was bent around with disgustingly inhuman flexibility. Sasuke's follow up punch was dodged in much the same manner, as were the next few strikes we attempted, as the kunoichi dodged this way and that, contorting her body in ways that would have made me very squeamish, had we not been in the middle of a battle.

Suddenly, the kunoichi jumped up and planted both her feet on Sasuke's chest before pushing, hard, firing him away into the forest, rolling and flipping through the underbrush. As the kunoichi flipped through the air, she sped through hand seals with well practiced ease, and as I turned to face her when she flew over my head, she shot a ball of fire out of her mouth that hit me before I knew it was there.

I was launched violently through the air, before rolling along the ground. My shirt had completely burned off, and minor burns covering my arms and torso. Luckily, Naruto, shrouded in a strange red chakra, chose that exact moment to fly through the trees into the fight, fist extended, landing a punch to the kunoichi's cheek that caused an audible crack, and almost seemed to peel skin away with it.

I stood up, painfully, my burns radiating pain, and the rest of me aching. I watched as the kunoichi ripped her face off, revealing her true face, I suppose, to Naruto. I started walking forward, painfully, while Sasuke came back, and he and Naruto teamed up to fight Orochimaru. They were able to, together, back Orochimaru against a tree, where they tied him up with ninja wire, before igniting the wire explosively, burning Orochimaru to a crisp, before the flames abated, and Orochimaru melted down into mud again.

As Orochimaru stepped forward from the shadows behind the Genin, I shunshined forward, catching his teeth on my sword, once more keeping him from biting Sasuke. I lit my blade up with electricity, making Orochimaru pull his head back, rubbing his cheeks, likely to abate the numbness, and staring at the black markings that had appeared on the left side of my chest, just below my pectoral.

Licking his lips like before, Orochimaru smiled, before muttering something to himself. He chuckled darkly again, before disappearing and reappearing again right in front of me, two fingers outstretched and poking into my chest, right where all the markings seemed to coalesce. He smiled again, saying "I wonder what this'll do, kukuku, should be fun. **Fuuin Kai**!" The markings started to glow and pulse for a second, before shattering, bursting away from my body in an explosion of chakra.

I dropped like a rock, suddenly unable to move my limbs as my chakra ran rampant through my chakra network without any direction, and resistant to my direction. My chakra washed through me, first cool, soothing, flowing smoothly like a calm river, before morphing, and raging through me like a wildfire. For a short few moments, I felt as if my chakra network itself was on fire.

And then, as fast as it came, it was gone, my chakra returning to it's normal state. I slowly stood up, feeling exhausted, and wobbling slightly because of it. I stood up just in time to see Orochimaru slam his hand into Naruto's cheek, creating an audible crack that was, more than likely, Naruto's cheek, and slamming Naruto into the ground hard enough to create a small crater, probably cracking, if not breaking, several more of Naruto's bones in the process. Naruto's eyes almost seemed to flash red for a second before rolling back into his head.

Orochimaru's neck elongated once more, biting down hard on Sasuke's shoulder, leaving a red swirling mark. Orochimaru smiled for a second before Sasuke let out an inhuman scream of pure pain, before he contorted painfully as he dropped to the ground, where he writhed in pain for a second or two before passing out. Orochimaru looked over at me one last time, smirking triumphantly as I fell to my knees, too exhausted to properly process what really just happened.

"Well, little Anbu, it looks like you failed. Tell Sarutobi his favourite student says hello." My vision flickered slightly, and he was gone. Falling onto my stomach, I saw Cat and her Anbu group shunshin around us. The last thing I saw before I passed out, was Cat bending down to pick me up as the other Anbu disappeared into the forest once again.

 **Hey all, sorry it took so long, but, well, university is a motherfucker. I hope the length helped make up for the long wait. I'm not sure when I'll be able to put up another chapter, but I'm hoping to get another one out before the end of November, ideally. Thanks for sticking with it, you all rock, PEACE!**


	12. Chapter 12

**Don't own the shit you recognize. Y'all should know this by now. I'm kidding. Welcome back, don't forget to favorite, follow, and review, or any combination of them.**

 **Previously:**

" _Well, little Anbu, it looks like you failed. Tell Sarutobi his favourite student says hello." My vision flickered slightly, and he was gone. Falling onto my stomach, I saw Cat and her Anbu group shunshin around us. The last thing I saw before I passed out, was Cat bending down to pick me up as the other Anbu disappeared into the forest once again._

The first thing that greeted me upon waking up was a stark white room, from the white tiled floor, to the whitewashed walls and ceiling. The next thing, was pain. Initially a sharp pain to introduce it's presence, it then subsided to the dull, incessant ache that encompassed my torso and arms, and would likely plague me for several days, if not weeks.

I moved around a bit until I was in a more upright position, and decided to look around the room for a minute or two until a nurse or someone came in, as they inevitably going to. Looking around, I saw that, to the left of my bed, against the wall, was a box that was locked with a sealing matrix. Realizing for the first time that I was, for the first time in quite some time, without my mask, I assumed that it must be in the box, along with my katana, as well as anything I had on me that didn't get destroyed in Orochimaru's explosive fire jutsu.

To the right was a plain wooden end table, devoid of anything but a small reading lamp. A bathroom off to the right of me rounded out the room, a very spartan atmosphere encompassing the space. I didn't have to wait long for a nurse to walk in, notice I was awake, and leave almost instantly. The nurse returned moments later with a doctor who bid the nurse leave. The doctor fussed about me for a minute or two in silence, content to observe the monitors on the wall above my head, and make basic checks to my eyes and ears and whatnot.

Finally breaking the silence, the doctor picked up a clipboard at the end of my bed as he spoke. "Fire style jutsu straight to the chest, initially widespread second degree burns, most bordering on third degree, not completely healed, at least outwardly. You are still experiencing some aching, correct?" At my nod, he made a small note on his clipboard before continuing. "Should be gone in the next couple days. Come back if it lasts longer than a week, alright? Major physical exhaustion and electrolyte deficiency, to be expected of a fight like the one you were in. You might tire a little easier than normal for a day or two, but you should have recovered fine over the course of your little nap. Minor chakra exhaustion, also, should be completely fine now. Anything else was taken care of by E.R. before they brought you up here. Any questions?"

"How long was I out?" I blurted out, barely letting him finish. Looking completely unfazed, the doctor just flipped a couple pages on the clipboard before looking back up. "Four days, total. One day in E.R., and then we put you under for a couple days to make sure you recovered as much as possible before you left. You shinobi have this nasty habit of disappearing before your recovery has completed, regardless of what we say."

My eyes widened in surprise as he spoke, a question itching at the back of my mind. When he finished, I finally asked it. "So, the second stage of the Chunin exams are over?"

The doctor simply nodded his head. "Yeah, just got some of the more serious injuries down in the E.R. A couple of them are up here on this floor. Give me an hour or two, and I'll be back with your discharge papers."

The second he left however, an Anbu with a mask that looked like a monkey landed in my room, at the foot of my bed, having just jumped in through the window. He stood up, and fixed me with a gaze that, even though I couldn't see it, I could feel the unspoken request. I sighed softly, pulling the IV out of my arm, and pulling the various monitoring devices off of my body. "I'm not going to be filling out that paperwork, am I?" I asked the Anbu, receiving only a shake of the head in return. "Yeah, I figured. Let me get dressed and I'll be in the Hokage's office in a minute."

The Anbu jumped out the window, electing to observe from the roof across the street. I followed him moments later, my clothes on, mask in place, katana sheathed, and hair back in a hastily done braid.

"GODAMMIT, EVERY FUCKING TIME! THOSE DAMN SHINOBI COULDN'T FILL OUT A DISCHARGE PAPER IF THEIR LIFE DEPENDED ON IT!" I winced slightly, looking back in sympathy for the civilian doctor. "Is that paperwork ever going to get filled out? It seemed kinda important." I asked the Anbu, only for him to shrug slightly in response, making me sigh exasperatedly.

It wasn't but a minute or two later that we entered the Hokage's office, jumping in through the window that seemed to be perpetually open. The Anbu and I immediately kneeled, waiting for the Hokage to finish filling out the paperwork he was working on. With a heavy sigh, the Hokage made one last stroke of his pen, and set the paper off to the size on the top of an already sizable stack. He gestured dismissively at us, and the Anbu with me immediately disappeared into the shadows, while I stood up. Sarutobi rubbed the bridge of his nose with his eyes closed for a couple seconds before he spoke.

"Orochimaru achieved what he set out to do. Or, at least, what we know he wanted to do while in the forest. We do not know what he is looking to do as we move forward. The Chunin exams will continue as scheduled. The third test is a tournament, as you may know, and the preliminary exams have already been completed." Sarutobi leaned forward, opening his eyes and leaning his forearms on his desk. "We cannot afford to cancel the third part of the exams for a multitude of reasons, the least of which being that we cannot afford, economically, to lose the money the exam is sure to bring us in just tourism, and that's before you factor in the taxes we get off of the legal gambling on the tournament, and the jobs that we will receive, should the leaf Genin give a good showing during the tournament."

"Why are you telling me all this, Hokage-sama?" I asked, my interest piqued. He didn't answer my question immediately, settling to snap his fingers, and wait as Anbu started filtering in and out for a minute or so, grabbing folders that I hadn't even noticed off of Sarutobi's desk. "A few reasons. One, unless you conveniently forgot, I did promote you, before you raced off into the forest. So, you will never partake in these exams yourself. Promotions, like yours, while not common, are not unheard of, especially in the Anbu. I may need you in the future to understand how the exams are run in Konoha, and I felt explaining it now would waste less time. Two, because we currently don't know what Orochimaru is doing, I have recalled all available shinobi, Chunin rank and up, to help defend the village, should we find ourselves in need of the forces to fight. The Anbu are assigned to monitoring the Jounin-senseis that will be staying for the month, making sure any contestants leave who are not in the next part of the exams, monitoring the contestants intermittently, as well as monitoring any shinobi from other villages that may accompany both the litany of merchants, as well as the Tsuchikage and the Kazekage. As it is, that will stretch the Anbu forces thin, and I can't afford to pull Cat off of her duties to train you. So, you will be helping to ease some of the workload of the Anbu who are monitoring the contestants, taking twelve hour shifts just like a fully-fledged Anbu would. It is vital that you not get caught. Cat thankfully, does not have to take any Anbu shifts for the next three days or so, and you will be working with her on your stealth skills. Go meet her on training ground 1. Understood?"

I nodded, dashing out the window, and running off to training ground 1 immediately. I arrived in the training ground about a minute later. It was an area about an acre, that was covered in dense shrubbery, and trees that were very wide, and close enough together that Akimichis tended to avoid it if they could, lest they be caught in an embarrassing situation.

Cat was already standing there, waiting for me, in a circle of decimated trees that was no more than twenty feet in diameter. She had her arms crossed over her breastplate, and didn't speak until I jumped down across from her.

"Stealth is vital for all shinobi, but is the most vital part of an Anbu's arsenal. If your enemy, target, whatever they happen to be, doesn't know where you are, or better yet, that you're even there, they don't know where to guard, or where to look. Following someone is heavily dependant on your ability to hide yourself from them, as well as your speed. Today will be spent learning to suppress your chakra, and tomorrow and the day after, you will attempt to follow me through the village without me sensing you. Got it?" I nodded, and she uncrossed her arms.

"Okay. It is impossible to truly suppress your chakra. All people always have some amount of chakra flowing through them, though shinobi, and some samurai, have exponentially more chakra both in reserves, and flowing through them at all times. Sensors can, as the name implies, sense the flow and reserves of chakra through shinobi. Truly amazing sensors can also sense chakra in civilians, extraordinarily small though it typically is, and can do this over startling distances. Lowering your chakra flow, slowing it down as much as you can, using your chakra sparingly, and compacting your reserves, will mean that you aren't even a blip on the radar for sensors, provided you can lower it enough. Most Anbu take their time to learn this, taking a month or so to master it. You get twelve hours to reach a level that I find satisfactory. You have ten minutes to hide while suppressing your chakra, and staying in sight of me. If I find you, we start over, back here, after I give you some incentive not to mess up. Your time starts, now!" She pulled out a stopwatch, hitting the start button.

I ran past her, several feet into the forest, before I jumped up as high as I could with a chakra boosted jump, landing on one of the topmost branches of the tree. I sat down for a moment, and focused as hard as I could to limit the amount of chakra that was circulating through my body, and trying to stop and compress the roiling of the chakra in my core, before I reached the smallest amount of chakra moving through my body as I possibly could. I ran across the branch, jumping to the next, and using my momentum to carry me across the branches until I was off to Cat's left. I jumped forward, doing a half flip, grabbing the branch, and spinning around it a couple times to lose momentum. After that I dropped down a couple branches, until I was just a foot or so above the treeline. I peeked around the tree to see Cat seeming to focus intently on the watch in her hand.

After a very long couple minutes of waiting, where I even subconsciously breathed less, Cat looked up, announcing my time was up. She stood stock still, looking around the clearing for a minute or so, before vanishing. Seconds later, I found the flat edge of her ninjato pressed against my neck, as she announced, "You lose. You weren't suppressing your chakra well enough. Good idea trying to get high, though, most people don't look up, but when tailing a shinobi you know is a sensor, putting your chakra up high might just make you stand out like a damn beacon." She gave me a small cut across my forearm that didn't bleed much, but stung like a bitch. "That's your incentive. Do better."

The next ten hours or so followed similarly. I would take five minutes centering myself, trying to lower everything about myself, my heartbeat, my breathing, my chakra, and then moving as quietly and quickly as I could, both with and without chakra, to hide high, low, halfway up the trunk of a tree, only for Cat to find me about a minute later, leaving me with a cut, some small words of advice, and the ever present, very wise, and exceedingly helpful, 'Do Better'. However, I began to see some modicum of success after the fifth hour, my arms starting to legitimately hurt, and Cat taking 70 seconds, rather than the 65 she had been managing the entire session previously. From there, I counted every religiously, and found it going up incrementally, by a second every other run, or every couple runs.

Five hours after that, I found that Cat would vanish, a minute into my time, and was showing up almost three minutes later. Internally, I was ecstatic. I spent the next hour and a half lowering my chakra even further if possible, getting used to keeping my chakra as low as it was when I started focusing at the start of the run, and even lowering it as I moved. It wasn't until we were a half an hour until our time ran out that Cat called a stop. Our last run had ended with Cat taking almost five minutes to find me.

"You're quite adept at this now. I have no doubt that, should you have to hide, most Jonin, even sensor types, would be hard pressed to find you, especially if you could put good distance between you and them." Cat crossed her arms again, after stowing her stopwatch in her tool pouch. "Tomorrow at 10, I will be on the roof across from ichiraku ramen. Don't be late. When you arrive, I will begin to walk through the streets, like the Genin you will be following if you pass my tests. You have to follow me for six hours. At the end of those six hours, if you have followed me to wherever I end up, and remain undetected, you will pass. Should you not pass, we will repeat the exercise until you get it right. We will have 36 hours to do this before I have to do my own missions. Mind you, just because I eat, or stop for food, does not mean that you can as well. I will see you tomorrow."

 **9 hours later**

I stood next to Cat on the roof across from Ichiraku, silently wondering how Naruto, who had just entered Ichiraku Ramen, could stomach something like ramen so early in the morning. "Your test begins now. Do not fail." Cat said, without looking at me, and as emotionless as ever. She dropped down to the streets after a moment, and began walking down the street. I waited a moment, taking the time to suppress my chakra, before jumping across the rooftops, following after her.

For the next three or four hours, I followed Cat as she simply walked through the streets doing nothing of not while I was leaping over rooftops, and scaling walls and trees just to keep up and stay out of sight, until I started to notice people flooding the street, and food joints opening up. At this point, I soundlessly dropped down into an alley, stowing my mask, and sealing away my katana, and following Cat through the streets. Her purple hair stood out starkly in the sea of brown and black haired heads, as I'm sure my red hair would stand out just as much. Making sure to keep as much distance between us as possible, while still keeping her in sight, I watched as Cat walked into a dango shop, and sat down with a woman I recognized as Anko, who looked a little worse for wear, purple bags under her eyes even visible from where I was. Cat talked to Anko for a little bit, while I hid behind a garbage can in an alley across the street, before both purple headed women stood up and left the dango shop, without eating or ordering anything.

They seemed to be chatting amicably, well, Anko was, at the very least, from what I could see, before both women turned suddenly into an alley. Running forward, I stopped before entering the alley, leaning against the wall and looking into it, only to have Anko flick me in the forehead hard enough to leave a red mark. "Ooooh, looks like somebody got caught! Nice try though, baby Anbu." Anko mocked, shoulders shaking slightly with barely controlled mirth.

"Jeremiah, you failed. Anko will now be joining me, more than likely only making this harder for you. Your new timer begins now." She walked off with Anko in tow, as Anko picked up talking again, saying, "You know, he looks much younger than I thought he would be. I suppose those masks can make anyone look older than they should, yeah?"

Four hours later, I found myself in a similar situation after following Cat and Anko hither and yon, while they bought things, ate a late lunch, and simply talked. I stuck to the streets this time, staying in crowds, keeping my mask off, and katana away. I had found a plain dark green long sleeved shirt in a store, and swapped it out for my own, after leaving some cash on the counter to pay for it. The dark green shirt let me blend in a little easier, but, again, as does purple, my red hair likely stood out like a beacon to anyone that was looking for it in the amalgamation of brown and black that filled the streets. However, Cat and Anko were once again walking away from me as Anko laughed.

I followed them through the crowds once more, only taking to the rooftops once the crowds started to thin out. Three hours in, Anko broke off from Cat, bidding her farewell, while Cat walked into a bar that catered exclusively to Jonin, according to the sign on the door that said that they asked for proof of shinobi rank. Moments later, I heard someone drop next to me on the roof, and turned my head to see Anko with a smile that threatened to split her face. I jumped away, startled slightly, expletives escaping my lips, before I brought myself under control, and stopped talking, opting to look at her questioningly.

"Don't worry, brat, my part in your little test is over. I'm just here to scare you, obviously, and to say hi." She stood up, turning to leave, before she stopped and turned back. "Oh, and, don't lose yourself in this work. I know for a fact that every twelve hours an Anbu is on duty, they're supposed to get twelve hours off duty. Some Anbu ignore that particular rule. Don't be one of them. Find something to take your mind off of the shit you have to do as an Anbu when you're off duty. Drink, smoke, sex, other miscellaneous vices and hobbies. Find something. It's the only way you'll survive the life you're working so hard to be a part of." With a look that almost seemed sad or regretful, Anko disappeared off into the late afternoon.

I sat on that rooftop for an hour, silently thinking over what Anko had said, while I watched the door to the bar, while the sun slowly got closer to setting. Cat finally came out of the bar, passing several Jonin I recognized as Genin senseis, including Kurenai Yuhi, all of whom seemed to recognize Cat. Cat started walking off back towards the Hokage tower, while I followed her over the rooftops, dropping back down when the streets starting filling up with all the people out for dinner.

I followed Cat as she took a turn before she reached the Hokage tower, and started heading off towards training ground 1. An hour of ambling through the streets found us on the very outskirts of training ground 1. Cat turned towards me when I landed after leaping over the fence. "You did it. While not actively looking for you, I was only able to notice you twice. If you put that much effort in the two days from now, you'll do spectacularly." And then, for the first time since I met her, Cat actually showed some emotion. "I am, very proud to say that I taught you, though I suspect most of your skill comes from your own training. If and when you actually join the Anbu, I hope the Hokage assigns you to my squad." And with that, Cat vanished off into the growing night. I lowered my head slightly, smiling, before finding a copy of Cat's mask laying at my feet. I picked it up, and turned it over, to find a note taped to the inside of the forehead of the mask.

The note said, 'When you join the Anbu, you will get your own mask and callsign. Until then, the Hokage said I could give you this, and that you should wear it when on Anbu missions that he gives you. Outside of that, you should stick with your other mask. I look forward to working together one day.' I smiled softly, putting on the mask, finding that all of the seals on it were still intact, and the mask, like the other one I owned would stick to my face without a strap, but would actually filter out airborne toxins, and give me enhanced night vision, unlike my other mask. I dashed home, intent on sleeping as long as I like, and then training.

 **Two days later**

I found myself summoned to the Hokage's office at around 11. I quickly put on the mask Cat had given me, and ran off. When I got there, the Hokage handed me a dossier, and nodded for me to leave. I shot out of the office, landing on a rooftop, and sitting down to quickly read through the dossier. Opening it up, the first thing I saw startled me, almost making me drop the dossier. It was a picture that showed a girl who was familiar to me, her head turned to look over her camera, mouth open to talk to the person behind her. The picture was clearly taken from a roof by a surveillance team, and captured her dark red, almost maroon shirt, that only had a sleeve on her right arm. Her forehead protector detailed the insignia for Iwagakure, but, as usual, what really drew my attention were her eyes. Pink, unlike any eyes I had ever seen. I took note of the Anbu I would be relieving, and shot off to find him.

An hour later, I found a man, wearing a bear mask, and the traditional Anbu gear, sitting on the roof across from one of the Akimichi restaurants, the barbecue one, to be specific. He looked at me, and, with a slightly gruff, very deep, voice, said, "She has been training all day with her sensei. Surprised he would even be here, heard he never left Iwagakure anymore. Anyway, be careful, her sensei is no sensor, and neither is she, but he is not someone you should fuck around with, alright?" I nodded, and Bear disappeared from the roof a moment later.

I opened the dossier again, to see if there was anything I had missed the first time around. She had beaten her teammate in the preliminaries, unfortunate that had to happen, while their third had withdrawn from the preliminaries before they started. She is supposed to face Sasuke Uchiha in the first round of the official tournament that would open to the public in just under a month.

I closed the dossier, sticking it back into my tool pouch, just as Kurotsuchi and, to my surprise, not Han, but rather Roshi, came out of the restaurant just after her. I followed after them, jumping from building to building, my weights having been left in my apartment. I followed them until they reached training ground thirteen, a training ground that was little more than a flat, slightly dusty, acre, peppered with some rocks every so often. It was the training ground that Doton users frequented, and, apparently, as I learned in the next few hours, was also a fairly good training ground for Yoton users.

Kurotsuchi spent the next four hours working with Roshi as he demonstrated a technique I didn't quite catch the name of, but caused a pillar of lava to explode upward out of the ground wherever the user wanted it to, within the range of the user's chakra. I even got a chance to see Roshi summon forth four of them at the same time, though they weren't more than ten feet from him. At that display, a quiet "Holy shit" slipped its way out. Thankfully, it was very quiet, and it would be nigh impossible for Roshi or Kurotsuchi to hear it, though I swear I saw Roshi smirk slightly.

When they were done training, they went to get dinner at a restaurant on their way back to their hotel. When they were done, I continued following them, all the way back to their hotel. I quickly dashed to and up a tree that was in the growing shadow of the hotel, already knowing that the Anbu that had monitored Kurotsuchi and Roshi had used this tree last night, since it gave good coverage, with the leaves, and the shadow of the building, in the evening, would give even better coverage. With this knowledge, and, feeling secure in my ability to hide from them, I settled down on a particularly sturdy branch, looking up to find an Anbu above me with a wolf mask who, though I couldn't see his eyes, I could feel looked down with equal bewilderment. I climbed up to the branch next to him, sitting down.

Whispering, I asked him, "Have you been following them since noon?" He nodded, and whispered back, "I was assigned to follow Roshi of the Yoton. You were assigned to follow his student?" I just nodded, keeping my eyes on the window that looked in on Kurotsuchi's room, where she was sitting in an arm chair, reading. "Do you have this assignment all month?" He asked, and I shrugged my shoulders. "Should be in your dossier, inside cover." I pulled my dossier out, and looked at the inside cover, and saw the note that said 'Afternoon shift, Until Chunin Exams'.

I looked back at Wolf and whispered, "Looks like I've got this all month. You?" He shook his head. "No, I'm just covering for my squadmate. He got really sick last week, and hasn't recovered yet. He should be back tomorrow, though." I nodded, and sat back, leaning against the trunk, and settled into a comfortable silence with Wolf for the next couple hours.

At around midnight, a tap on my shoulder pulled my attention away from Kurotsuchi's dark room, as she had gone to bed several hours ago, and instead to Bear, who had just landed on the branch just to my left. "Kurotsuchi turned in a couple hours ago. Haven't seen any movement in her room since then." Bear nodded as I heard Wolf give a similar report to his replacement, and I left, still suppressing my chakra until I was far away from the hotel. After that, I sprinted home, chakra enhancing my movements, though it felt more explosive than the lightning chakra I typically felt crackling across my chakra pathways. Resigning to figure it out after some sleep, I reached my apartment, took off my cat mask, and immediately fell asleep on my bed.

I woke up roughly eight hours later, and, after a quick breakfast, went out to train. I quickly left for training ground seven, and, finding it unoccupied as I expected, with Naruto and Sasuke off receiving training for their matches in the tournament, I made sure that my weights were set how I wanted them, and started going through some basic stretches and physical conditioning. After an hour or so of jogging, sprinting, push-ups, pull-ups, and sit-ups, I decided to start working on my taijutsu, and incorporating my chakra more closely into my taijutsu. However, my chakra, like the day before, was not behaving as I was used to it behaving.

Instead of the crackling electricity I would see and feel while channeling elemental chakra, I had steam rising and roiling off of my hands, when I channeled chakra to them. 'What the fuck is going on?' I thought, flipping my hands over and over again, staring intently at the steam flowing over and around my hands. 'When the hell did this happen?'

I spent several minutes staring at my hands as I ran through dozens of scenarios of where and how this could have happened, before my mind latched onto the memory of Orochimaru, at the end of our fight, releasing a seal on my chest. I quickly pulled up the hem of my shirt, and, channeling chakra, found that the marks that had appeared on my chest since I learned about chakra were absent. 'Okay, so clearly, my new element manipulation is linked to the disappearance of my marks. So, the marks were a seal that was suppressing my element manipulation?' I subconsciously shook my head to answer my own question.

'No. No. Steam elemental manipulation is a kekkei genkai. I don't have a kekkei genkai.' I raised my hands up in front of my face once more, watching as steam drifted off of my hands. "But, then again…" I said, trailing off as I lowered my hands again. "Maybe mom did, and that's how I got it?" I scratched the top of my head, starting to pace in front of the wooden pillars. I stopped walking, and slowly traced the scar on my chest through my shirt, where my father had once stabbed me. "Did Dad seal away my kekkei genkai when he stabbed me? Why would he do that? Is that why I've always been shit at fire and water manipulation? Why would Orochimaru destroy my seal?"

Shaking my head in an attempt to clear it of thoughts that didn't really matter at that point in time, I grabbed a leaf from a tree, and, channeling chakra into it, watched as all the water evaporated out of it, and it crumpled into a brown, curled, husk. Grabbing another leaf, and, actively trying to channel only fire chakra, watched as the leaf burned to a crisp almost immediately. Spurned on by this small success, I grabbed another leaf, and, trying to channel only water chakra, watched as the leaf quickly became oversaturated and started to drip water off of the tip. I grabbed a third leaf, and, after much more focus than it used to take, managed to make the leaf crinkle up in on itself like I used to with my lightning chakra.

"Well, this is super sweet and all, that I can use Futton and all, this is going to make it a bitch to use my Raiton. I wonder if Futton would be as useful in nintaijutsu as Raiton is?" I shrugged my shoulders, and, closing my eyes to focus briefly, I opened them back up after feeling the familiar tingle of lightning chakra running through my chakra pathways, making my reflexes faster, and making my perception of time slow down. A second later I blasted off into the forest, leaving a small burst of lightning in my wake, a smile plastered on my face as I sped through the trees and shrubbery, jumping over logs and dodging around trees that, had my reflexes been even slightly slower, I would have been plastered against. Every once in awhile, I would release another blast of chakra to halt my movement so that I could go in another direction. Slowing down after a half an hour or so of blazing through the forest at speeds that some Jounin likely would be hard pressed to reach, I tried repeating the process with my steam chakra.

Right from the off, I could tell that it would be a starkly different process. The steam, unlike the lightning, did not so much release in a controlled burst, as explode violently from my feet, causing me to shoot forward even faster than before, but left me no way to change my momentum from one linear direction to another, nor did it particularly lend itself to reacting quickly. Finding myself hurtling at a tree that looked much more solid than I was, I pushed a bunch of steam chakra through my palms, and put them between myself and the tree. An instant later, I found my momentum stopped rather forcefully, and a resounding crack echoed through the forest.

Looking at the tree I had almost smashed myself into pudding against, I found that the steam chakra, as I had expected, had exploded out of my hands very forcefully, stopping my momentum. Unfortunately, it had also stripped away all of the bark from the tree in a circle a little larger than my torso, and had subsequently blasted an indentation about a foot deep into the tree just a bit smaller than the hole in the bark.

Breathing heavily, I quickly backed far away from the tree on the off chance that it ended up toppling over, before I sat down, crossing my legs. "Okay, shit. Noted. Do not use steam chakra to run, unless I'm trying to rush in on someone, or need a shitload of straight line speed in an open area. Kinda wanna see what it'll do for my punches, though. Likely does not lend itself well to kenjutsu, unless it is to dash into and through my opponents."

I stood up slowly, still breathing a bit heavily, before walking over to a tree, and gathering steam around my hands, and releasing several punches that were enhanced by steam being released from both my elbow, to propel the punch much faster than normal, and from my knuckles when my fist made contact. It was an instant of a delay with each punch, but the punch would connect with bark, breaking away most of the admittedly thick bark, before the ensuing explosion of steam stripped what remained of the bark, and blasted a shallow divot into the wood underneath. I stepped back after throwing the last punch to see the tree littered with pockmarks just larger than my fists. "Well, goddamn. That's pretty freaking effective."

Deciding to give it a rest for the day, I ran off to find a restaurant to eat lunch before I had to go relieve Bear from his shift.

I found myself, a little while later, finishing up my sushi as the currently sole patron of the establishment, as the bell over the door jingled as it opened up. Lifting my head to look at the door, I heard a greeting from the hostess as she rushed to seat the two entering patrons. I made eye contact with the red-haired Roshi as he smiled mischievously. My eyes quickly darted to the person next to him, immediately identifying her as Kurotsuchi, despite not being able to see her face. I gulped slightly, raising my hand to catch the attention of the waiter who was lounging around at the bar to pay for my food. He handed me the check, and, looking it over, I handed him enough ryo to pay for it, standing up and walking towards the exit of the restaurant.

I tried to walk quickly while not drawing undue attention to myself, and was almost past Roshi and Kurotsuchi's table, before I heard Roshi calling my name. Stopping, grimacing, and then fixing a smile on my face before I turned around, I greeted a slightly smirking Roshi and a very annoyed looking Kurotsuchi. "Hello, Roshi-san, Kurotsuchi-san, wonderful to see you."

"Oh, it's just great to see you too, Jeremiah- _kun_ , isn't that right Kurotsuchi?" Asked Roshi, only to receive a noncommittal grumble in return. "Well, Jeremiah, since we ran into you, and this is our first time in Konoha, would it be possible for you to show us around the city tonight?" Roshi asked, smiling a bit too much for my liking. "See, we only know the way to our hotel and the training ground, and it sure would be great if we could figure out how to get to some other spots around town." Starting to get a little suspicious, my eyes narrowed slightly, and I tilted my head to the side slightly, my smile dropping involuntarily off of my face.

"Unfortunately, Roshi-san, that will not be possible. I spend my afternoons doing missions, you know, us Genin have to complete those D-ranks some time, and I regularly work fairly late into the night." I turned to go, but faltered in my steps when I heard Roshi call after me, all hints of a joking tone gone from his voice, saying "But you're a Chunin, why are you still doing D-ranks?" Electing to ignore him, and the slight gasp I heard come from, I assume, Kurotsuchi, I pulled open the door, and started walking down the street

'How the fuck could he possibly know that? Was he just bluffing? How much does he really know?' These thoughts, and others relating to them raced through my head as I walked a bit down the street, before checking the time, ducking into an alleyway to put on my full Anbu mask, and jumping up onto the rooftops, sealing away my weights, and running off to rendezvous with Bear. I found him waiting, as I expected, on the rooftop across from the sushi restaurant I had run into them in. I crouched down next to him, giving him a small nod before he nodded back.

"They've been in there for a couple minutes, should be in there for a little while. Might have to start bringing a book or something with me when I monitor these two. They tend to stay in one place for at least one hour before they go anywhere else. Anyway, they spent the morning training just like yesterday, and more than likely just like the next month or so we spend watching them." He patted me on my shoulder, and dashed off, leaving me alone on the rooftop. Almost an hour later, right when the crowds hit their peak for the lunch rush, Roshi and Kurotsuchi walked out of the restaurant. Dropping down into the crowds on the street, I followed them as they weaved through the throngs of people on the streets, making their way back to training ground thirteen.

I watched them as they went through training similar to the previous day's, with Kurotsuchi trying to master the jutsu that Roshi demonstrated the previous day, with limited success. They trained for something around six hours, before they left for dinner, as I followed them through the streets, and then followed them as they made their way to their hotels. Just as they were entering their hotel, a comment Roshi made drifted its way along the wind to me, "Remember, Kurotsuchi, you should always be careful, even when in your hotel room. Goodness knows that there are wayward birds and sneaky cats hidden in trees." Kurotsuchi looked confused, but, nonetheless, closed the curtains to her room, just as Roshi did when he reached his room.

While sitting in the tree, just as yesterday, I looked around me, trying to locate the Anbu who was in the tree with me. Looking up, I saw a man, clearly much taller than myself, but who looked leaner than the other Anbu members I had met, even Cat, almost like he had been a foot shorter, and built like the other male Anbu I had run into so far, and then suddenly grew a foot, and everything got stretched out. He wore a mask stylized to resemble a stork, or perhaps a crane. We nodded to each other, before settling in for another night of waiting for the shift change. Thankfully, Bear showed up a couple hours later, around midnight, right when my sleepiness was starting to make me yawn occasionally. I went home, crashing into my bed, and falling asleep instantly.

A month lasts much longer than one would think, especially when one spends the month monitoring people who, at any moment, could start violently killing all the civilians around them. Not that Roshi and Kurotsuchi were the type to do that, but, well, everything, even paranoia, can be good in moderation. Thankfully, when I wasn't following them for my mission, I didn't run into them around the village after running into them in the sushi restaurant. My training was going nicely. I could feel my speed increasing slowly over the month, and I had finally reached a point where I felt very confident that if I raced some of the lower ranked Jounin, I would at least match them without chakra. However, that meant that, as fast as I was, my strikes, without the addition of my steam chakra, would not hit as hard as, say, Naruto could. My kenjutsu was more than able to make up for it, however, since it relied more heavily on speed and finesse than most taijutsu.

I had just finished a hefty lunch that would, hopefully, be able to tide me over until the end of my last shift on monitor duty. I found Bear, as usual, hiding on the rooftop across the street from a restaurant. He looked at me and nodded before he left wordlessly, which, over the month, had come to mean something like 'Same shit as always. They didn't do much of anything but sleep, eat, and train.' I sat down like Bear had been, my chakra levels having already been lowered as much as I could.

'Last day. Tomorrow, I'll get a chance to watch the Chunin Exams tournament, which should be really awesome to watch.' I smiled under my mask. 'Maybe I'll get to watch Sasuke get his arrogant ass beaten by Kurotsuchi. That'd be pretty funny. Hope Kakashi doesn't accidentally show up late with him.'

I was broken from my thoughts when I saw Kurotsuchi and Roshi leave the restaurant, and start walking through the streets. I followed them, keeping my distance, until I realized that they weren't walking in the direction of training ground thirteen, but rather were walking towards what some civilians called the Market district. True to it's name, it was an area about a couple blocks that was storefront after storefront. Tailors, blacksmiths, butchers, bakers, even a candlestick maker. It was frequented by shinobi and civilians alike, though higher ranked shinobi tended to go to the blacksmiths in different areas of the town, as they could be fairly particular about the weight and balance of their kunais and shuriken.

Unlike previous days, the next several hours were spent following Roshi and Kurotsuchi through the Market district as they weaved in and out of store after store, and Roshi slowly became more and more laden with shopping bags. Around about when the sun started to reach the horizon, the two Iwa shinobi went into one of the rare restaurants around the market district, a ramen stand called Ichiraku's that, while I myself had never been, I had been witness to Naruto ranting and raving about both ramen in general and, in particular, Ichiraku ramen. I hid myself for a while before they emerged once more, zigging and zagging through the crowds of people going out to eat and shop as they made their way towards their hotel. A little while later, I found myself perched in the tree next to the hotel once more as Kurotsuchi hugged Roshi, smiling happily, and thanking him profusely before Roshi left her room, and the curtains on her windows were pulled closed once more.

Several hours of staring at the bland curtains found me quite bored and wishing for something to make this night more interesting. Seconds later, a hawk swooped through the branches of the tree, dropping a message off for the Anbu above me, who I had learned was designated the mask and callsign Crane. Looking down at me, he waved the scroll, showing the red bands that designated it as an emergency that he had to attend to, and leapt off into the night. Once more, I settled back down, until a piercing shriek split the air. Making a very quick check towards both Kurotsuchi and Roshi's curtains, I saw no evidence of lights being lit or turned on, and ran off very quickly in the direction of the scream.

On my way, I fell into step with an Anbu squad of around five that was assigned to watch the Kazekage, who had arrived just a few days prior. Following them, I found myself surrounded by somewhere around a baker's dozen Anbu operatives, some of which were, like me and the squad I had arrived with, currently supposed to be on observation duty of various shinobi, including the Tsuchikage and his entourage, which had arrived late last night.

Looking around the area we had subconsciously surrounded in a circle of sorts, I saw, on that roof, more blood in one area than I had likely seen in my life as of yet, and the crumpled, utterly destroyed, boneless body of the only Otogakure genin to advance to the tournament round of the exams. I gagged slightly, suddenly very glad for the filters on the mask I was wearing. The only thing that was left recognizable was his face, which was still barely recognizable at best, and the right arm, which had been utterly crushed inside what had once been a metal gauntlet. One of the Anbu stepped forward, and ordered all those of us here who were not on patrol or not supposed to work, to leave.

Moments later, all those of us who were currently supposed to be monitoring people had left. I was back in the tree a minute or two later, sitting in silence as mental pictures of the Otogakure Genin filtered in and out of my mind, and I started taking slow, long, deep breaths to calm myself. 'What the hell kind of person could do such a thing? No, what the hell kind of _**monster**_ could do such a thing?'

 **Cat's POV, a couple minutes earlier**

I ran through the city, jumping across rooftops, trying to reach where the Hokage was as fast as possible. After all, when the Hokage sends you a scroll by hawk that just says, 'Get here. NOW.' You get there as fast as possible. And yet, I seemed to be the last to arrive. Frowning slightly, I landed in front of the Hokage on the roof, and kneeled immediately. On reflex alone, "Hokage-sama" was spoken, my head bowed, and my lips frowning slightly. I hadn't seen Hayate all day, and, though I was trying to keep my attention on my work, my mind would still occasionally drift towards concern for Hayate, and where he might be. "I apologize for being late, Hokage-sama." I said, as I stood up in response to his gesture.

He just smiled sadly at me, starting to concern me, before he spoke, saying, "There is no need to apologize. You were the last one notified." I tilted my head slightly, confused. "Why-" I started to ask before the Hokage put his hand on my shoulder, tears threatening to spill out of his eyes. "I'm very sorry, Yugao. This couldn't have happened to a happier man." I turned around, very slowly, as a pit of dread settled into my stomach, knowing what I would see before I actually saw it. As I turned all the way around, the first thing I took note of was the katana, a birthday present I had given him five years ago, before we even started dating. Then I saw the puddles of dark red blood, slowly creeping across the slightly curved rooftop. My eyes found his feet, and, tears already streaming down my face, slowly started working their way up.

Past the lacerations that covered his thighs, to the stomach, where the largest cut began. The flak jacket I had watched him accept so happily, cut clean through, and barely hanging on his body. His chest, cut wide open, to his arms, just like his legs, absolutely covered in lacerations. My feet subconsciously started taking small steps toward the body, as I slowly pulled off my Anbu mask. By the time my eyes had actually reached his face, I found myself kneeling by his side, my mask discarded. Finally, I saw the face that, just barely a day ago, had seemed so happy, so alive, so excited to have the chance to watch kids go through the joy he felt when he fought his way to the rank of Chunin, now desecrated by cuts and blood.

My hands grabbed onto the cut edge of his flak jacket, balling into fists. I vaguely registered, somewhere in the back of my mind, the Hokage kneeling down next to me, and gently resting his hand on my shoulder, saying, "Yugao, I am so, so, unbelievably sorry." And that broke the dam, the mental block I had put on myself for years, repressing my emotions while in my uniform. I bent over, my head lowering, almost touching Hayate's chest as I just sat there, and wailed.

 **(A/N) I'm sorry. I wanted him to live, I really did, hand to heart. But, it is integral to Yugao's character development. Also, how'd you guys like her POV? Do you think I did her justice in such a short time? She's one of those characters that I always wanted to know more about, when I was watching and reading Naruto. Anyway, I might do more POVs in the future that obviously, would be different from Jeremiah's. Hopefully it will help keep this story from getting stale and repetitive. Well, you guys are awesome, thanks for reading! PEACE!**


	13. Chapter 13

**(A/N) Welcome back everyone. I don't own Naruto, obviously, or I probably wouldn't be writing this. Sorry that last chapter was a bit boring, but this chapter will pick up the slack.**

The crowds didn't start filtering into the arena until a little after nine. I had been waiting in the stands for a little over fifteen minutes before the larger groups started arriving, and had been awake for a couple hours already. I hadn't slept well. The Otogakure Genin's body haunted me. The idea that there was someone or something in Konoha that was capable, physically and mentally, of crushing someone to death was deeply disturbing to me. Apparently, a tokubetsu Jounin had also been killed last night, the same guy who was supposed to proctor the tournament. His name had been engraved in the Memorial Stone very early this morning, and his death had not been made common knowledge yet, but Bear had told me about it when my shift last night had ended.

Possibly because of the two deaths last night, or perhaps something else, I had a pit of dread in my stomach the size of the Yondaime's stone face. So, though I hadn't planned to leave my apartment armed to the teeth, I found myself tying my sword across my back, and restocking my weapons pouch as much as I could, leaving my weights in my apartment, and stowing both of my masks in a scroll in my weapons pouch. The other day, I had gotten a mesh armor undershirt, which was worn under the navy blue long sleeve shirt that was prefered by the majority of the Konoha shinobi, with the red spirals on both shoulders, and the sleeves rolled up to my forearms. My pants were the same color, and were wrapped from mid calf down in bandages that were the same color as the pants.

I didn't have to wait too long until people I recognized started showing up. I fell into step next to, surprisingly, Kakashi, who was walking with Sakura, a girl whose hair was fashioned into two buns on her head, a man with a bowl cut who wore green spandex, and a shorter version of him, without a flak jacket, and hobbled by his crutches.

"I'm surprised to see you Kakashi, I could have sworn you would have shown up late." I said, knowing he had seen me, despite his only visible eye being buried in his omnipresent orange book. He hummed slightly, likely thinking up some stupid excuse before he spoke. "Well, a pelican stole my calendar when Sasuke and I were training, and thought the exams were yesterday, so we got here around noon yesterday." I laughed softly, shaking my head in disbelief. "Speaking of Sasuke, how'd your training go?" Kakashi closed his book as we approached one of the areas set aside for shinobi. Sakura and the other two Genin sat down as Kakashi and I stayed standing with the other Jonin.

"Sasuke has gotten much faster. The other day he was going on about how he wanted to race you." He said, smiling. "I think he has a pretty good shot at winning the tournament." It was around then that the other Jonin decided to finally speak to Kakashi and I, having spent most of his time talking to the smaller version of him. "YOSH! IT IS SO YOUTHFUL FOR YOU TO BELIEVE SO WHOLEHEARTEDLY IN YOUR STUDENT!" He yelled, before a placating gesture from Kakashi prompted him to drop his volume. "However, remember, the Iwa kunoichi is quite skilled in her own right. And then he will have to fight Gaara, who so wholly defeated Lee-kun." As he said that, his face fell slightly, before perking up again. "And, remember, after that, he will have to fight Neji, who will surely defeat your other student."

Kakashi just tilted his head slightly, unfazed. "Well, I don't know about that, Guy. Naruto is, after all, someone you should never count out, and he has apparently spent the last month training with Jiraiya-sama of the Sannin." Guy's mouth dropped open, his eyes widening. "Jiraiya-sama is back in Konoha?! YOSH, KAKASHI, TO HAVE A STUDENT BE TRAINED BY A SANNIN IS VERY YOUTHFUL!"

I turned away from them, my mind working overtime, thinking about the matchups in the tournament. I didn't know much about this Neji character, but if Guy was right, he very well may defeat Naruto. So, first fight, already a tossup. Second fight, Sasuke against Kurotsuchi. If Kakashi was right, Sasuke might win. If Kakashi was over exaggerating, Kurotsuchi would more than likely defeat him. But the winner of that had to face Gaara after a little while, who, if that Lee guy was any indication, would try his damndest to kill his opponent. I didn't want either Sasuke or Kurotsuchi to win.

Shino against that Kankuro fella, probably Shino. The dude's wicked smart, and pretty good at everything but taijutsu, and those bugs were scary. Shikamaru against the Suna girl, Temari. Probably Temari, on no other basis other than Shikamaru, at any moment, might just quit because he didn't feel like fighting anymore.

I was broken out of my thoughts by Kakashi, who had tapped me on my shoulder and wordlessly pointed at the arena. I looked down to see all of the contestants lined up, Naruto looking antsy as usual, while the others seemed to stand impassively, but for Gaara, who had at least fifteen feet between him and the closest person, who must have been the Temari girl from Suna. A Jonin stood in front of them all, a senbon in his mouth, and a bandanna covering his head, showing them the updated bracket they would be advancing through now that the Oto Genin was dead. After he explained some rules to them, all of the Genin but Naruto and Neji left the arena.

The Jonin jumped away from them, and yelled so the entire arena could hear, "The first match of the Chunin exam tournament is between Hyuuga Neji and Uzumaki Naruto. On my mark, the match will begin." Naruto and Neji stayed silent, though Naruto was already, and quite visibly, seething in anger. Neji, either not noticing Naruto's anger, or actively choosing to poke the proverbial bear, said, "I will defeat you in this fight. For it is your fate." Neji then settled down into his taijutsu stance, almost seeming to taunt Naruto. Naruto just jumped on the balls of his feet a bit, before slamming a fist into his other palm. "Let's just get this shit started so I can make you pay for what you did to Hinata."

The Jonin lowered his hand, yelling "FIGHT!" Suddenly Naruto was dashing forward, his hands in the seal for the Kage Bunshin, as easily two dozen of them burst up into smoke around him, obscuring our vision of Naruto briefly. Lee's mouth gaped open as Naruto did this, though the question he likely was going to ask came from the girl next to him, instead. "Is he about to try to fight Neji in a taijutsu battle? He'll be destroyed!"

Kakashi hummed thoughtfully for a moment before smiling. "I wouldn't say that. Naruto is nothing if not unpredictable. Outside of a fight, he might seem a bit air-headed, but when he fights, his mind goes a mile a minute. He may not be a genius in the same sense as Neji or Sasuke are, but he is certainly capable of holding his own, at the very least." I nodded, too focused on the smoke that was steadily decreasing our view of Neji, as he took down Naruto's clones one by one. I knew Naruto had some sort of strategy hidden up his sleeve, and was not surprised to see the real Naruto appear outside of the smoke as a result of the Kawarimi, just watching his clones fight Neji, and, more than likely, slowly figuring the holes in the Jyuuken style that Neji was inevitably leaving open as he fought, as the memories of his clones hit him one by one.

Unsurprisingly, Naruto brought his fingers up in the same seal as before, creating almost three dozen clones that rushed immediately at Neji, who, bit by bit, was starting to get overwhelmed by the clones that seemed unending, and were slowly finding their way through his defenses. A flash of panic could be seen on Neji's face as a clone managed a glancing blow on his shoulder, before Neji's face hardened into stoicism once more as he started to rotate, and suddenly a dome of chakra exploded outwards around him, decimating the clones that had been attacking him, until, when the dust cleared, it was just Neji and the original Naruto in the arena again.

Behind me, Guy was spluttering in disbelief. "How did Neji learn the Kaiten? That's a move only main branch members learn." Kakashi's only visible eyebrow rose in respect. "To learn such a technique from only watching it done, Neji is truly a genius the Hyuuga have not seen for quite some time." Down in the arena, Neji and Naruto seemed to be caught in an argument of sorts, that couldn't quite be heard in the stands.

I looked at Kakashi, confused. "Why is Naruto so pissed at Neji? I wasn't aware they even knew each other." Kakashi was silent for a moment, before he spoke again. "They met in the preliminary stage. After Naruto fought Kiba, Neji fought Hinata, who, coincidentally, is his cousin, and is a member of the main family while Neji was forced to become a member of the branch family after his father died. Neji is, understandably, a bit mad at the main family, and took out his anger on Hinata, almost killing her. Naruto was furious that anyone could do something like that to their family, and swore he would make Neji pay." I nodded, before looking down into the arena just in time to see Naruto and Neji clash in a bought of taijutsu. Neji seemed to get more and more frustrated that he couldn't land any clean hits on Naruto, who was putting all the knowledge he got from his clones to good use.

It took some time, but Naruto landed a solid backhand fist to Neji's ribcage, clearly at least cracking a few, from the way Neji recoiled before his face contorted in unadulterated rage, and the Kaiten roared to life around Neji once more, throwing Naruto several yards away, to land painfully on his back, where he stayed while Neji started ranting angrily to him. Naruto slowly stood up, the pain from the many glancing blows Neji had landed starting to pile up on top of the damage from the Kaiten and the impact with the ground. This only increased Neji's rage, as he dashed forward, striking Naruto over and over, chakra exploding from Naruto's body with every jab Neji landed. Neji was just about to finish his combo with a dual palm strike to Naruto's chest when his rotation seemed to aggravate his cracked ribs, and he flinched slightly, drawing his palms off to the left so he ended up hitting Naruto squarely in his shoulder, sending him spiralling several feet away.

Naruto stood up after a little bit, before his chakra exploded outward violently, opening the pathways that had been closed by Neji. He shot forward faster than before, landing hit after hit to Neji, pushing back the Hyuuga until they stood in the crater made by his first Kaiten. Neji, in a last ditch effort, spun again, forcing more chakra into this Kaiten than the ones previously. Because of where he was positioned, Naruto was not thrown up into the air like before, but rather right into the wall of the crater, and got ground into the wall as the Kaiten continued.

When it was over, Neji stood panting, talking to a Naruto that looked very defeated. Neji started ranting again, to a Naruto that looked very much unconscious. I turned to Kakashi, an eyebrow raised questioningly, to which he just shook his head and pointed back towards the arena, as if to just say, 'watch.'

After a minute or so, Neji finally stopped talking, and the Naruto he had been talking to dissappeared, only for the real Naruto to burst out of the hole that the Kage Bunshin had been concealing, propelled by what little chakra he had gathered while hiding from the Kaiten, and landed a solid punch onto Neji's punch, throwing his head to the side, and making him stumble back a foot or two, before Naruto walked up to him and punched him again in the temple, finally dropping Neji for good.

The medic ninja rushed out, fussing over Neji and Naruto, who looked on in unbridled joy as most of the stands started cheering. He jumped up, fist pumping, before a medic ninja made him settle down, and ushered him off to fix up any injuries he had picked up in his fight. The Jonin proctor stepped forward again, announcing, "Uzumaki Naruto wins against Hyuuga Neji! The next fight is Uchiha Sasuke and Kurotsuchi of Iwagakure!"

Sasuke and Kurotsuchi jumped down after giving the medic ninja enough time to get Neji out of the arena. My eyes narrowed involuntarily as Sasuke smirked, not even bothering to drop into a taijutsu stance when the proctor jumped away. "He's underestimating her already." I said, more for myself than for anyone else's benefit. Kakashi replied however, "Yes, it would seem that he is. He will certainly lose if he continues to underestimate her." The proctor's hand came down in time with a shout of "Fight!"

For a long moment nothing happened. Then, Kurotsuchi, never much one for patience in my experience, ran through hand seals quickly, and started shooting globs of what looked like flying lime deposits. Sasuke bobbed and weaved in between the shots, succeeding in dodging every one. Suddenly, Kurotsuchi shot forward as Sasuke dodged the last glob, and landed a solid hit to his stomach, throwing him back a bit, only for him to hit the wall that Kurotsuchi had been building with her jutsu, and bounce off rather violently. **(A/N Fun fact, quicklime is in concrete, and is a key component in cement.)**

Sasuke's eyes narrowed, and his teeth pulled back in a snarl, before he dashed away, not keen on fighting with his back literally against a wall. Once he had some distance, his Sharingan came blazing to life, spinning angrily as he sped through some hand seals, before shooting a giant fireball from his mouth, only for Kurotsuchi to slam her hands on the ground, and have a dome of earth spring up around her, shielding her completely from the fire. Sasuke spun around a second later, his leg outstretched for no reason, only for Kurotsuchi to pop up out of the ground right as his leg connected with her ribs, sending her rolling across the ground.

But, much like she had when she was fighting me, she was able to right herself enough to go through some hand seals as she was rolling, and slap her hands on the ground. Much like in Iwagakure, a mass of stone spikes rose up out of the ground, but instead of rotating around her, she immediately exploded them outward, sending Sasuke dashing away for cover, only to get pelted several times by sizable rocks, and accrue several cuts from the sharp edges most of them carried as well. Sasuke got back up, however, just in time to dodge the first of several strikes Kurotsuchi threw at him. His sharingan blazing, Sasuke dipped, dodged, and deflected every strike Kurotsuchi threw at him, and, finding and opening, landing several punishing hits to her ribcage and stomach.

She backed up momentarily, and sped through seals once more. Sasuke, now with a clear view of her, seemed at a loss as to why he couldn't copy her hand seals, only for his confusion to seemingly disappear the second Kurotsuchi summoned a pillar of lava at his feet, forcing him to dodge, though it looked like the heat took some of his eyebrows. Kurotsuchi straightened back up, and though she hadn't taken many hits, she was starting to breath a little heavy. "She's tiring. Those last two big jutsus really took it out of her." Kakashi said, Guy nodding in agreement. "Indeed. To continue to stay on the offensive this long while throwing out such large and powerful jutsus is impressive, however."

Kurotsuchi took a deep breath before getting into a taijutsu stance, seeming to be content to let Sasuke be the aggressor for the time being. She didn't wait long as Sasuke, in an impressive display of speed, seemed to appear right in front of her, his fist cocked. She smirked, leaning to the side to dodge, and initiated a taijutsu bout that resulted in less real damage than a single attack in the previous several minutes of the fight. This continued for a bit, before Sasuke started to gain the upper hand, and, dodging a punch that overextended Kurotsuchi just a bit too much, grabbed her arm, flipping her over his shoulder and painfully slamming her down onto the ground, before ruthlessly slamming one last punch to her temple to knock her out. Sasuke stood up to the cheers of the crowd, and started to walk away, only to almost collapse on his way to the medic ninja. It was only the timely intervention of the proctor that saved Sasuke from planting his face in the dirt.

"He did better than I thought he would." Kakashi said, causing me to look back in surprise. "Don't get me wrong, I had total faith that he would win that fight, but I thought for a while there that it would be even closer, if that's possible. Iwagakure has a phenomenal up and coming kunoichi in that girl." I nodded, looking back at the arena, before I spoke. "I think a big reason she lost is that, just like Sasuke underestimated her, she underestimated him. She came right out of the gate with the big, flashy jutsu, trying to overpower him. But the Sharingan combined with Sasuke's skill means he is not someone you can just overpower right at the start of the fight."

Kakashi just brought out his book again, tilting his head slightly. "Possibly. That might have been one of the reasons." The group of us stood in silence, waiting for the next fight to begin. The proctor called out for Kankuro from Sunagakure and Shino Aburame, only for Kankuro to forfeit immediately, drawing a plethora of boos from the audience. I turned to Kakashi before the proctor announced the next fighters. "I'll be back, I want to go check on something." I turned and walked away, finding the stairs and walking down them and through the labyrinth that is the lower levels of the Chunin exams arena. Finally finding the door I wanted, I pushed it open, and found myself in the infirmary. The first thing I noticed was a Hyuuga member I vaguely recognized as being the head of the clan, Hiashi, looking very melancholy as he stood at the foot of Neji's bed. I declined my head in his direction as I walked by, and he nodded back at me. After a bit of a walk, I was at the back of the infirmary, and saw two things. The first being Roshi standing, and staring right at me with a gaze like he expected me, and secondly, Kurotsuchi, lying in bed, looking tired, but otherwise completely fine.

I stood there for a long moment, my head lowered, staring at my toes as I shifted my weight from foot to foot like a moron, and none of us spoke. "I suppose I should start by saying hello." I said, awkwardly, finally looking up and looking my gaze onto Kurotsuchi's incredibly pink eyes. "What are you doing here?" Kurotsuchi said, looking as confused as I felt. "I… Well, I'm not totally sure." I said, which made Roshi chuckle softly. "I suppose I wanted to make sure you were okay." Kurotsuchi just looked confused. "Of course I'm okay," she said. "That Uchiha pretty boy doesn't hit nearly as hard as Han-sensei or Roshi do. I was caught by surprise is all." She said, sniffing indignantly, which had Roshi laughing quite uproariously.

A smile crept it's way across my face, before I chuckled slightly. "See Roshi, Konoha Anbu _can_ show emotion." Kurotsuchi said, as she gestured towards me, while looking at Roshi. I scratched the back of my head, embarrassed. "Well, I'm not really part of the Anbu." I said, looking down slightly. Kurotsuchi just waved her hand dismissively, saying "Whatever, close enough." It was then that Roshi patted Kurotsuchi on the shoulder, saying, "Well, I'd better go tell your grandfather that you're okay before he freaks out and vaporizes the arena. Have fun with your friend." He waved back at us over his shoulder as he walked away. Kurotsuchi yelled after him, "He's not my friend, I hardly know him!"

She looked back at me as I stood awkwardly once more, at a loss for what to say, though Kurotsuchi was clearly not, as she said, "Why do you wear your mask so often? I think this is the first time I've seen your full face." I shrugged, pulling out the broken Anbu mask I had worn for so long. "I dunno. I got this from my sensei as a reward of sorts. I guess I felt I had an obligation to wear it. Besides, it helps hide my scar." I said, lightly running my finger along the scar on my cheek. I had never really given much thought into why I wore the broken Anbu mask. I just had. I only really stopped wearing it when I got the full Anbu mask.

I was broken out of my contemplation by Kurotsuchi very indignantly declaring, "That's stupid." I looked back up at her in shock, confused. "Why would you willingly hide part of who you are? That's like actively choosing to not use a kekkei genkai, or trying to ignore your emotions. It makes no sense." She said, looking about as annoyed as she sounded. A smile crept its way across my face as I put the mask back into my weapons pouch. "I suppose it does seem stupid, when you look at it that way." I said, as I turned to leave. "Well, it's good to know that you are okay. I have to go, I've been missing long enough."

I got maybe two steps away before I was stopped by Kurotsuchi calling after me, saying "Wait!" I turned around, an eyebrow raised questioningly. "What's up?" I asked, my hands firmly in my pockets. Kurotsuchi almost seemed to blush before she blurted out, "Thank you for coming." I just smiled, my eyes closing, before I said, "Of course, after all, we're friends, right?" I walked off, chuckling, as I heard Kurotsuchi sputter in surprise for a moment, before yelling after me, "No, we most certainly are not!"

I walked up behind Kakashi as down in the arena Shikamaru surrendered, saying he was out of chakra. I snorted in disbelief as Temari stood, dumbfounded, while Shikamaru just walked out of the arena. She followed him moments later, neither having actually taken any real damage, and just looked a little tired.

I looked at Kakashi, asking "So, what happens now?" Without looking up from his book, he responded, saying, "Now, we wait half an hour or so for Sasuke to fight Gaara." I nodded my head, "I'm not looking forward to that fight. I don't like Sasuke's odds against that guy. Gaara almost looks like he's unhinged. Like he's not in full control of his own actions." Kakashi looked up at Guy, and they gave each other a look that I couldn't interpret.

"Well, he may not be." Kakashi answered cryptically, putting his book away. "I would recommend that you all be ready for just about anything during this fight." I stared at Kakashi for a long moment, his eye showing no emotion, but when I looked at Guy, it was a different story. He looked grave, almost solemn, like he was preparing himself for something he knew he was going to hate. Now getting a little concerned, I just nodded, reaching into my weapons pouch, and putting on my broken Anbu mask.

The group of us watched apprehensively as a dome of sand grew up around Gaara, and Sasuke tried several times to punch through with just his fists and feet. He flipped away, running most of the way up the wall of the arena, before going through some hand seals, and holding his left hand away from his body. I looked over at Kakashi and Guy as Guy gasped slightly in disbelief. "Surely, Kakashi, you wouldn't have taught him that?" He said, to which Kakashi just responded with, "He needed it to stand a chance against Gaara."

Guy nodded, pursing his lips in distaste for a moment before speaking again. "Well, that at least explains the drastic increase in speed we see." Sakura decided to ask the question that was plaguing the Genin present. Having already seen it in Wave, but being preformed by Kakashi, I was less confused. "I'm sorry, but him holding a ball of lightning chakra doesn't seem all that important. Am I missing something?"

Guy again just nodded. "That is the only jutsu that has been created by Copy Ninja Kakashi. It is one of the deadliest jutsus currently in Konoha's arsenal, barring kinjutsu, in terms of raw power. The A-ranked assassination jutsu, Chidori, that, when fully mastered, becomes what Kakashi uses, Raikiri, capable of splitting an actual lightning bolt, and also killing you before you hear the telltale 'chirping'. When mastered the way Kakashi has mastered it, if you hear the chirping, and don't know where it is coming from, it is a death sentence. It requires immense speed, and, for anyone without a Sharingan, requires your target to be unable to dodge."

Kakashi picked up from there. "However, for someone with the Sharingan, like Sasuke and myself, you can either lock them in place with genjutsu, or, and this is more realistic in the middle of a fight, you can predict their movements, and adjust accordingly. It is the only way for Sasuke to be able to defeat Gaara, as pure speed and taijutsu have been ineffective against Gaara both in Lee's fight, and earlier in this fight."

I nodded. "I get it. Sasuke needed a trump card that he would only have to use for Gaara." I looked back as Sasuke shot down the wall, and towards Gaara, a deep trough getting gouged by the volatile lightning chakra Sasuke was holding off to the side in his palm.

When he reached the sphere of sand, he dodged around several spikes of sand, and thrust his hand forward, sinking elbow deep into the sphere, exploding sand outward. Sasuke's face broke into a smirk before it turned to panic as an animalistic, ear splitting scream rent the air. Sasuke started trying to pull his arm out of the sand, only for the sand to start to tighten around his arm. Sasuke's arm exploded violently with lightning chakra, vaporizing a hole in the sand large enough for him to pull his hand out as another scream split the silence that had fallen over the arena.

Suddenly an immense pressure started emanating from the sphere, followed closely by a feeling of malice dozens times more potent than anything I had ever felt before. Sasuke quickly starting backpedaling away from the sphere as a massive hand of sand that was laced with what looked like blue arteries or veins and tipped with massive claws burst from the hole Sasuke made, and slammed down a foot or two from him. An animalistic growl sounded from within the sphere, before, suddenly, the sand all started to collapse. After a minute or so, the sand had all fallen to the ground, and Gaara stood, breathing heavily, eyes wide and bloodshot, and clutching his shoulder.

Suddenly, white feathers started to float down from above, drifting around me. I could feel my eyelids starting to drift shut, and my head started to loll. I shook my head, straightening up, thinking, 'This must be a genjutsu.' I brought my hands up in a ram seal, and briefly flared my chakra, breaking the hold the genjutsu had on me, and watched as the feathers vanished. I looked around to see the civilians in the stadium dropping like flies, all collapsing into their chairs to sleep, while a multitude of shinobi all stood up, having broken the genjutsu. It was definitely more Konoha shinobi than would normally be at the Chunin exams, as at least half of the shinobi here had probably been pulled off of whatever mission they were doing outside the village. Smoke burst up around the Kage box, obscuring our view of the Tsuchikage, Hokage, and Kazekage. A moment later, the Kazekage burst out of the smoke, holding the Hokage, and four other figures jumped away from them, before a barrier grew up around where the Hokage and Kazekage were. An Anbu, in their cloak, was in the air when the barrier went up, and couldn't stop their momentum, slamming into the barrier, and immediately bursting into flames.

I looked around to see Tenten and Sakura standing up, leaving Lee in his chair. Guy and Kakashi were already looking around, trying to figure out exactly what was going on. Suddenly, an Anbu jumped down to the bottom of the box, much to all of our confusion. I reached back, loosening my katana in it's sheathe while the Anbu made a hand sign, and half a dozen or so Otogakure shinobi landed next to him. It was a tense standoff for what felt like ages, but was more than likely barely a minute, as other Otogakure shinobi started showing up around the area, some clearly planning to face off against specific Konoha shinobi, all of whom stood tall, waiting patiently. I looked past the traitor Anbu and the Otogakure shinobi just in time to see Sasuke jump over the arena wall, and make off in the direction that Gaara and his companions, who had jumped into the arena to grab him, had left in.

A loud clang rang out from the arena as the proctor blocked the kunai that were thrown by a Suna shinobi I hadn't notice enter the arena. Suddenly the Otogakure shinobi sprang forward, throwing shuriken forward, and pulling kunai out to attack us. I shot forward, ducking under the first stab one of them threw at me and, unsheathing my katana, separated his arm from the elbow down. When he was clutching the stump of his arm, several shuriken from Kakashi and other Konoha shinobi quickly littered his body. I spun around the falling body, and jumped up and over several shuriken an Otogakure shinobi threw at me. On the way back down, I spun around, extending my leg, snapping a kick to the shinobi's jaw that sent him flying over the railing to fall down to the arena.

Looking around, I saw that the Konoha shinobi were steadily overpowering the Otogakure shinobi that were attacking them. I ran over to Kakashi, who was talking to Sakura. "What can I do?" I asked. Kakashi didn't reply for a moment, instead choosing to kick an Oto shinobi hard enough to send him into the railing, bending it from the force. Sakura snuck off with Tenten and a small dog in the direction of the stairs. "Sakura is going to wake up Naruto Shikamaru, should she be able to find them. Tenten is going to go help the Academy evacuate, and will help make sure any other civilians around that are awake get to cover. We need to end this fight quickly up here, but you should go check on the infirmary, make sure the medics and patients there are okay, and get them to the hospital. They'll need the medics there."

I looked around, nodding, and shot off towards the stairs I had used earlier to visit Kurotsuchi. I found the hallway to the infirmary, only to find the passage choked off by Otogakure and Sunagakure shinobi who were all trying to break into the infirmary, which had been blocked off by a very sturdy looking stone wall over the doors. I stopped and backed up a few feet so that I could get a running start, before shooting forward, and jumped up above the shinobi in the hallway, before raining down almost every shuriken I had onto them, watching as they started dropping like flies. By the time they figured out where I was, I had already landed past them, with over half of them dead already, and readied my katana in my right hand, my left fixing into a half ram seal, and mist started pouring down the hallway, thickening and muffling any sounds to anyone but me. The chakra absorbed all the energy from the sound, transmitting it back to me. Combined with what was effectively a blanket of chakra that allowed me to fairly accurately locate any chakra signal inside the mist, I was far from blind, despite not being able to see.

I dashed forward, my katana a black blur around me as I ran along the walls and ceiling, dropping down only to sever a body part with my katana, or stab a kunai into someone. Just as I was about to kill the second to last guy, he and his buddy dissipated the mist with a combined wind jutsu that would have thrown me down the hall away from them if I wasn't above them on the ceiling. I dropped down, cutting off one guy's arm, and kicking him forcefully into the wall with a burst of steam chakra, making him bounce off the wall leaving a small crater. I caught his arm which was still clutching a kunai and, deflecting the last man's kunai with my sword, lodged the kunai, with the arm still attached, into his throat. I pushed him over as he started to wobble on his feet, and walked over to the stone slab. "You know, I think I see why Zabuza is so fond of that jutsu. It made that whole thing way easier."

I knocked on the stone slab, an eye hole opening up a second later, and a pair of pink eyes looked out at me. "Hello, it's housekeeping, I'm afraid I've made a bit of a mess outside your room. Thought you ought to know." I said, smiling like an idiot, though it was hidden by my mask. Kurotsuchi just rolled her eyes, sighing exasperatedly, before the stone wall crumbled in front of me. "What're you doing here? She asked, smiling slightly. "I'm here to make sure everyone in here makes it to the hospital safely." I said, getting very serious. "Konoha is getting invaded by Suna and Oto, and any medics here will, inevitably, be needed at the hospital. Any patients should come as well."

Kurotsuchi just nodded, before looking at the medics that had gathered at the door, one of them carrying Neji. We set off down the hallway, stepping over bodies carefully. We eventually reached a hallway that had a window that, while high up on the wall, looked out on the forest behind the arena. I motioned for Kurotsuchi and she did some hand seals, before placing both palms on the wall, and a hole about the size of double doors slowly crumbled into existence as the wall fell. We ran out, and I started leading them to the hospital.

We didn't run into any opposition on the way to the hotel, which I found a bit odd, but when we were in sight of the hospital, a pair of Suna chunin jumped down and grabbed one of the medics. I yelled at the rest of the medics and Kurotsuchi to keep going, and they did, though Kurotsuchi seemed to do it a bit begrudgingly. I looked at the Chunin standing on the street across from me, who were smiling at the female medic in a predatory fashion at best.

"If you just let her go, we won't have any problems." I said, raising my hands in a placating gesture to the two full grown men. They just smirked at me. "What are you going to do to stop us?" One of them asked, mockingly. I started channeling lightning to my legs and arms, as my hands slowly drifted farther back, putting my right hand right next to the hilt of my sword. "If you just let her go, you won't have to find out." I said, and watched as they both just got angrier at that. Both of them had their hands on her arms and shoulders, and were slowly squeezing harder and harder in their anger. I could see the medic ninja bite her lip to stop from crying out in pain, but it was plain to see in her eyes. I took a long, deep breath, before shooting forward in a chakra enhanced burst of speed that put me behind both of them. As the one on the right's head slowly started to fall off his shoulders, I quickly turned and planted a kunai in the back of the other's head, and pushed both bodies away from myself and the medic ninja.

She looked scared to death, and though she was easily ten years my senior, I quickly ushered her into the hospital, where she was grabbed by another medic ninja, who would check her over to make sure she could still work. I turned and walked out of the hospital without looking back, jumping up onto a roof across the street. I looked around me, trying to find somewhere I could help, when I saw a large translucent box appear, encasing a sizable snake, and instantly vaporized it. Not recognizing that as a Konoha technique, I started running towards it. When I reached the source of the box, I found the Tsuchikage floating in the air above Roshi as Roshi laughed his ass off, having the time of his life, while also fighting a startlingly impressive number of Otogakure and Sunagakure shinobi, who all looked to be extremely surprised by the amount of resistance they were encountering with only two opponents.

Roshi slammed his palms on the ground, still laughing, as a wave of red hot lava rolled forward, burning anything it touched. He straightened up, looking up at the Tsuchikage, a smile on his face, before saying, "These puny shinobi aren't even a problem. This is how you have a real good time, old man!" The Tsuchikage just grumbled something under his breath, clearly annoyed as he shot a glob of mud at an Oto shinobi that was trying to jump up and attack him, which immediately planted the shinobi on the ground, and hardened around him so the shinobi couldn't move.

"They may not be strong, but there are quite an impressive number of them." He said, moving to the side to avoid another aggressor. An Oto shinobi came running at Roshi from behind, and, seeing that both he and the Tsuchikage were otherwise distracted, I shot forward in a burst of steam chakra, and planted my shoulder right in the Oto shinobi's gut. The force from the hit completely reversed his momentum, sending him flying into several of his friends. Roshi looked back to see me, smiling widely. "Well, fancy seeing the kid here. Thanks for the assist." He said, as he started forming balls of lava in his palms and chucking them at the encroaching shinobi.

"Yeah, well, once I got everyone in the infirmary to the hospital, I didn't have any specific orders. I figured I might as well beat some ass, help out by doing what I know how to do." I said, ducking under a punch from a Suna shinobi, and planting my fist in his gut, sending him spiralling away with a blast of steam chakra. I spun off of another shinobi's jab, unsheathing my katana as I spun, letting the momentum carry my katana through his neck, decapitating him. I kicked off of the ground, propelling myself about ten feet into the air, dodging a slice of wind chakra. I threw a kunai down into that shinobi's skull, and hit the ground a second after the body did.

I rolled as I hit the ground and immediately deflected another kunai off of my katana, sending it towards Roshi who grabbed it out of the air and promptly threw it into an enemy shinobi's skull. I shot forward into a small gap with quick use of steam chakra, Roshi following close behind. I jumped up above the first shinobi I saw, whose face was quickly acquainted with Roshi's fist, which launched him back into several of his friends. I landed behind Roshi, blocking a kunai that was directed at his back, deflecting the strike off to the side and relieving the shinobi of the arm that was holding the kunai before decapitating him. Seconds later, a dozen enemy shinobi simply disappeared when they were encased by a translucent cube.

I grabbed a kunai, running lightning chakra through before throwing it with a yell, and watched satisfied as it pierced straight through several shinobi, dropping them all within a second of each other. I was starting to feel the toll the fighting was taking on me, as my next few slashes with my katana were definitely slower than I would have liked. I pulled out the last couple shuriken I had left on me, spinning them around my fingers for a second, waiting for a good opportunity, before lighting them all up with lightning chakra, and throwing them into the mob of enemy shinobi. I dashed forward, dodging and deflecting strikes with my off hand while slashing out around me with my katana, before charging it with lightning chakra as well, and cleaving clean through several shinobi with one cut. I quickly jumped back, breathing hard, before popping one of the soldier pills I had swiped from one of the medics, and felt some of my energy come back over the next couple seconds. Sure, he might need them to replenish their chakra while he's healing someone, but I only stole three, the maximum dose a shinobi could take in one day without getting poisoned. And besides, it's not like he didn't have an entire goddamn bottle in his pocket.

I watched for a quick moment as Roshi ripped through the enemy shinobi, seeming unable to run out of energy, throwing devastating punches, kicks, and jutsus around like it was just another day in the park. I saw a shinobi try to attack Roshi from behind at the same time as the Tsuchikage, and the shinobi, hearing the air crackle, turned to see a bolt of lightning shoot right through his chest just before he was surrounded by a translucent box and disappeared instantly. Roshi started to back up to us while the Tsuchikage ran through hand seals, dropping to the ground and slamming his hands on the ground, summoning a couple stone walls in front of us, before sending them flying forward, forcing the enemy shinobi to back up.

"So, Kurotsuchi is alright?" The Tsuchikage asked in the small lull in the battle. I nodded, breathing heavy, but not taking my eyes off of the shinobi that were finally starting to look wary about going up against the Tsuchikage and Roshi no Yoton. "Yeah, she's at the hospital. She had walled off the infirmary when I got there, and was keeping a couple dozen shinobi out of the infirmary." I said, my grip shifting on the hilt of my katana as we waited for the enemy to attack again.

"Good." Roshi said, and though he only said one word, I could feel the apprehension he and the Tsuchikage had been holding onto dissipate. All at once, the enemy shinobi backed up and, all together, threw a rain of kunai and shuriken at us. The Tsuchikage just grunted in annoyance, as a translucent cylinder appeared in between his hand, and growing at a startling rate, until it completely encased all the kunai and shuriken coming at us, vaporizing them. Any following projectiles that entered the cylinder were vaporized instantly, just like their predecessors.

While the Tsuchikage had been stopping all the projectiles, Roshi had been speeding through hand seals furiously, and even then they still took quite some time. With an angry yell, Roshi finished his hand seals, and slammed his hands down on the ground. The ground itself cracked open under the enemy shinobi, making almost all of them fall into the freshly created crevasse, while Roshi straightened up and make a few more hand seals, and stomping his foot angrily on the ground. The crevasse slammed shut immediately, sending out a shockwave from the impact. I stood, watching as what few enemy shinobi that were left shakily stood up and fled.

"Holy shit." I said, my eyes probably about the size of dinner plates, as I stared at the barely visible crack in the ground. I turned to the Tsuchikage and Roshi, "That was incredible!" I'm sure I looked like an excited teenager, but, well, I am a teenager, and I was excited.

Roshi just smiled, giving me a thumbs up and a wide smile before taking a long drink of water from the canteen at his hip. The Tsuchikage just looked tired and bored. "Yeah, whatever, kid. Just lead us to the hospital so I can see my granddaughter, would you?" He said, and floated after me when I started running off into the direction of the hospital, Roshi following close behind. A minute or two later, we entered the hospital and asked for Kurotsuchi's room number. I walked Roshi and the Tsuchikage up to her room, but turned to leave when we got there. I stopped when Roshi called after me, asking where I was going.

I turned back to look at Roshi, pulling my mask off, and replacing it with my full mask, watching as Roshi's eyes widened slightly, recognizing the mask, before a slight smirk broke out on his face. "It is not your village, Roshi, I don't expect you to fight to defend it, but I am a Chunin of this village, and it is my duty to fight to protect everyone in the village." I jumped out the window, and started running towards the monstrously large snakes that had just reached the outskirts of the city proper. However, right as I started running towards the snakes, one was flattened by a toad of equally massive size, killing it instantly. I hid myself as a mass of enemy shinobi streamed past me and the hospital, trying to get to the center of the village. A hawk flew overhead, probably sending some message that I should know, but I hadn't learned the hawk messages yet. I gave chase for a minute, until Bear appeared next to me as I ran and put a hand on my shoulder, bringing me to a halt. We stopped on a rooftop, and were immediately joined by Cat and four others.

"Let them get to the center of the village. When they get there, they will have to face the best Jonin that the clans of Konoha have to offer, as well as some of the Anbu. Any person that tries to flee should get chased down by either the clans or the Anbu in the center. Anyone that reaches the perimeter being set up by us and the rest of the Anbu either gets turned back, or turned to ash. Understood?" Cat asked, a strange coldness that hadn't been present in her voice the last time I talked to her. I nodded, and, not a minute later, a group of Suna and Oto shinobi came running towards us. A barrage of shuriken and kunai cut down their numbers as the rest of our group shunshined to the bridge. I blinked to and then through the last few that had managed to survive, before flicking the blood off of my katana.

I jumped back to Cat and Bear, and watched as a group of Suna Jonin got chased down by two Inuzuka kunoichi and their four dogs. Another group of enemy shinobi tried to escape down the road below us, but were all killed in even less time than the first. After that, our area was pretty quiet. Sounds of battle came from inside the perimeter, and I watched impressed as a Konoha shinobi, clearly an Akimichi, grew to gargantuan size, and started laying waste around with a bo staff that grew with him, a massive grin on his face visible from several blocks away.

After about two hours, I let out a long sigh as another hawk flew overhead, letting out a couple cries. I looked over at Cat questioningly, to which she just nodded. "It's over. We should get to the arena, the Hokage might need help," she said, sounding much more optimistic than I felt. We ran off to the arena, where we found a crowd of shinobi already gathering inside a clearing in a miniature forest on top of what used to be the Kage viewing box. In the middle of the clearing, encircled by solemn shinobi, lay Hiruzen Sarutobi, the Third Hokage, dried blood running from his mouth to his chin, eyes closed, and clearly dead, but with a smile on his face.

 **(A/N) And thus concludes the Chunin exams arc. I hope you guys liked it. The Konoha Crush episodes are probably my favorite episodes from the original Naruto anime. Quick note, in case you guys are wondering, anything that didn't get shown in this chapter happened as it did in canon, barring the Shikamaru and Temari fight in the exams, which obviously was a bit different than canon, given that Naruto didn't dig a tunnel like he did in the show, but I honestly couldn't figure out how to write that fight.**

 **The Gaara fight went as canon, with Naruto summoning Gamabunta and ending the fight by headbutting Gaara. The talk Naruto has with Gaara after the fight also happened, mostly because I love Gaara's character and the way he is one of the big examples of character development and personality changes in the show. Naruto in my story is stronger than he was in the show at the time of the invasion, but forcefully opening your tenketsu with a blast of chakra takes a pretty heavy toll on your body and chakra reserves.**

 **I hope you guys like Roshi, the Tsuchikage, and Kurotsuchi. I hope I did them justice. Roshi is one of the coolest Jinchuuriki in my opinion, and, just like every other ninja of his calibre, he's a card carrying badass.**

 **Also, if you guys want any reference to Jeremiah's punches are hitting like when he uses his steam chakra to superpower his punches, look no further than Yang from RWBY. Unfortunately, though it can help you hit like a truck, it takes approximately a metric fuckton of energy and control to change that chakra into steam, which is why Han keeps his furnace to make steam on his back, and also why, as of now, Jeremiah won't lean too heavily on his kekkei genkai, and why he didn't use it terribly much this chapter. Later in the story, I will give him a teacher who will help him learn to more efficiently use his bloodline.**

 **Aright, all of you that made it to the end, you're awesome, and I would love to hear feedback from you guys. Hit me up with reviews and all that jazz. PEACE OUT!**


	14. Chapter 14

**Hey everyone, welcome back to another chapter. I still own pretty much nothing, and I certainly don't own Naruto.**

I hate funerals. I always have. I mean, I've only really been to one other funeral, and that was my mom's, and I don't remember it since I was only three, but I'm sure it was just as sad and terrible as the Hokage's. I saw Kakashi leave halfway through the ceremony, after he had given his little speech about the Hokage, and saw, as I walked through the crowds, that Naruto and Sasuke were both noticeably missing, even though I walked to the funeral with them. Not that I was surprised, nor did I blame them. Having his entire family killed probably resulted in, among other things, Sasuke having to go to innumerable funerals. And the Third Hokage was always exceptionally close to Naruto. They were both probably hit really hard by the entire event.

I caught up to Kakashi as he walked through the empty village, everyone having gone to the funeral. "Where you going there, Kakashi?" I asked, falling into step next to him. He looked disapprovingly at me.

"Shouldn't you be at the Hokage's funeral still?" He said, trying to scold me. I just kept walking. "Shouldn't you be there?" I asked, my eyebrow quirking questioningly.

Kakashi sighed, and just kept walking. I walked with him through the village until we found ourselves standing in the same clearing as the Memorial Stone. My eyes widened as watched a purple haired woman, who was clearly Cat, as she kneeled in front of the memorial, her shoulders shaking slightly as she sobbed. Next to her was Anko, who had put her arm around Cat's shoulders comfortingly.

Kakashi walked up and stood next to Cat quietly, and I found myself joining him unconsciously. We stood there for a long time while Cat's sobs were the only sound in the clearing. "I was sorry to hear about Hayate. If it's any comfort at all, the last time he and I talked, just about the only thing he could talk about was how much he loved you, Yugao." Kakashi said, as he pulled out a bouquet of purple flowers, placing them down in front of the Memorial Stone.

Kakashi and I stood there quietly for a long time while I read some of the names on the Memorial Stone. Unsurprisingly, I saw a plethora of Uchihas and Senjus on the Memorial Stone, including the first two Hokages, who were joined on the stone by both of their successors. The most recent entry on the stone was Hiruzen Sarutobi, immediately preceded by the names of everyone who had died during the invasion. The name Hayate Gekko was the first to start this portion of the list.

After a long time of standing silently, Cat, sorry, Yugao, stood up very shakily, her eyes bloodshot and red, her kimono scrunched up tightly in her hands. "Thank you for coming to make sure I was okay," she said, barely above a whisper. "But I think I would quite like to be alone for the time being." I looked over at Kakashi, who was looking at the ground sadly.

"Very well, Yugao. We will leave you alone then." He said, and turned to walk away. I was just about to turn to follow him as well when Anko very angrily and aggressively slashed her hands through the air.

"NO! Fuck that! I'm your friend! I'm not about to just leave you to wallow in your sadness and self pity until you turn into another Kakashi! I won't let that happen!" Anko yelled, grabbing Yugao by the shoulders. "I know you're sad, but you can't just cut yourself off from other people! You're the only real friend some of us have…" Anko was starting to cry, and when I turned to look at Kakashi, he didn't seem angry about Anko apparently talking shit about him right in front of him. He stepped forward, putting a hand on Anko's shoulder reassuringly.

"I don't think that she was insinuating that she would never talk to you again, Anko. Why don't you give her some space for the rest of the day, let her figure out what emotions she's going through. Then, tomorrow morning, you go visit her, and you can talk to her again then." Anko slowly seemed to calm down as Kakashi talked, and her arms dropped to her sides. She took a small step back, as her hands clenched and unclenched a couple times.

"Fine. I'll leave you alone for now, Yugao, but I swear, if you try to make me leave again, I will tie you to a chair, and you will never leave my apartment." Anko said, wiping her eyes furiously before she turned to leave. Yugao thanked Kakashi as she started to walk off towards the city before she noticed I was still there. Smiling, she briefly pulled me into a hug before leaving in the same direction as Anko.

I looked at Kakashi, scratching the back of my head. "What was that all about?" I asked, confused. Kakashi smiled at me for a second before he spoke, "Where do you want me to start?" I quirked an eyebrow in confusion, "Uhhh, the beginning, i guess."

Kakashi chuckled for a second before he got a lot more serious. "Well, as you may know, Hayate Gekko, tokubetsu Jonin of Konohagakure, was murdered the night before the exams and the invasion." Here he paused for a moment, taking a deep breath, "He and Yugao, who you knew as Cat until now, had been dating for something around, two or three years, I think. Yugao was, understandably, very distraught, but she had to help defend against an invasion the next day, so she steeled herself, ignoring her emotions like all Anbu are taught, and using the mission as an outlet. That behavior, is, obviously, not very healthy for one's emotional state. Luckily, Yugao only did it for one day, so she should be fine in the long run. It might take her a while for her to properly come to terms with what happened, but whe will."

Kakashi rubbed his visible cheek thoughtfully for a moment before continuing to speak. "Anko is a different matter, and I don't know the whole story for sure. What I understand is, Anko was orphaned as a baby, and, when Anko was very young, she, as a Genin, was on a team that had Orochimaru as it's sensei, back before he became a rogue shinobi. Anko was his favored student, and he taught her many of his signature jutsus, including letting her sign the snake summoning contract like he had. He cared about her in a way no one else in the village did. So, when he fled the village, she went with him. At some point he forcibly marked her with his cursed seal, much like Sasuke, and then abandoned her. With nowhere else to go, Anko returned to Konoha only for the villagers to sneer and glare at her because of her connection for the village's most hated rogue shinobi. So, at some point I think Anko learned to hide those emotions behind a mask of joking indifference, and went through life without any real human connections. I wasn't aware that Anko and Yugao knew each other, much less that they were friends."

A little stunned by the amount of fairly personal information I learned in the span of a minute or two, I let out a very articulate "Uhhh, wow." Kakashi just nodded his head, and walked over to the Memorial Stone. I stood there with him for a while longer in silence. I didn't want to go home yet, but I couldn't think of anything else to do. After an hour of standing there, I heard a man walk up behind us. Kakashi and I turned to see a very tall man, well over six feet, who looked even taller with his geta sandals. His spiky white hair fall past his waist, with two bangs falling on either side of his face to his shoulders, and the rest was held back by a horned forehead protector with the kanji of oil on it. He had a wart on his nose, and red lines went down from his eyes all the way to his jawline. He was wearing mesh armor under a green kimono and matching pants that stopped at about his calf. He also had on hand guards, a red haori with yellow circles, and a giant scroll was on his back.

"Kakashi, good to see you. I'm taking Naruto on a mission with me for a little while." He said, a very serious look on his face and a very serious tone in his voice that left you with a feeling that trying to object would just end up with you nursing your gratuitous amount of bruises. Kakashi smiled, and nodded, clearly not fazed by this man at all.

"Very well, Jiraiya-sama. May I ask what you will be doing on this mission? Will you continue training Naruto as you did for the exam?" Kakashi asked, the smile never leaving his… eye.

"We're going to find my old teammate." Jiraiya said, simply, crossing his arms. Kakashi's eye widened in surprise. "Surely you don't mean Orochimaru? I don't think Naruto could help you with that." Kakashi said.

"No, I don't plan to go looking for him for some time. Naruto and I will be looking for Tsunade, to bring her back to the village at the very least, and hopefully convince her to become the Hokage as well." Jiraiya said, turning to leave.

"Well then, good luck." Kakashi yelled after Jiraiya, who only grunted as he disappeared into the forest. "Well, we should probably leave, shouldn't we?" Kakashi said, walking off towards the city. I stood there for a moment longer before I headed home.

The next week and a half were exceedingly boring. I would wake up, eat breakfast, before running out the door to help with the rebuilding around the village. Just like most of the other shinobi still in the village, I was pretty much just a glorified pack mule, carrying wood around the village from the main stockyard that got set up on the outskirts of the city proper. I would break for lunch in the late afternoon, and afterwards spend a couple hours training. Then I would go eat dinner, before spending the next couple hours reading scrolls, which were usually about kekkei genkai. I spent most of my evenings trying to locate any remaining family members I might have, in the hopes that they might be able to help me learn to better use my kekkei genkai.

Unfortunately, it looked like the only clan that was even remotely linked to using steam jutsus or anything similar got wiped out during the bloodline purges in Kirigakure, which had started almost two decades prior. My mother probably only survived because she didn't have the kekkei genkai, though she unknowingly passed it onto me, something my father must have known when he sealed it away when he tried to kill me. Small consolation though it was, I did finally know my clan name, and I got it registered at the information office.

It wasn't until a week and a half after Sarutobi's funeral that something of real note and interest happened. It was a rare day where all the active Jonin senseis were back in town on the same day, for a day off before they took more missions in earnest, as they had done since the funeral. I saw three of them, Kakashi, Asuma, and Kurenai, standing in front of a tea stand. I dropped down to say hello, and saw them briefly glance in on the tea shop to take a quick look at two men in the tea shop who were wearing black cloaks that covered their whole body, except for their heads, which were covered by conical hats with what looked like blinds hanging from the brim. I looked over at the Jonin for just a moment as Sasuke walked up to Kakashi to talk to him, only to look back and see that both of the men were gone. I saw Kurenai and Asuma nod at Kakashi, who nodded back, before the two of them shunshined away.

I looked at Kakashi, pulling my broken Anbu mask out of my weapon pouch and putting it on. He saw me and only shrugged his shoulders, as if to say, 'Do what you want. They should be able to take care of it, but, well, you never know.' I nodded to Kakashi, and quickly blinked after Kurenai and Asuma, knowing full well that I shouldn't show myself to help them unless absolutely necessary.

I waited in the trees off to their side while they stopped the two men, who removed their hats after a minute of talking. 'Man, gotta get me one of those hats. They're super fucking cool.' I thought, watching as Asuma called out the black haired one as being Uchiha Itachi, and the taller man, who looked rather like a shark, with the blue skin and some strange marks on his cheeks that looked like gills, as being Hoshigaki Kisame, a former member of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen of Kirigakure. What followed I suppose could be called a light scuffle, as Kisame brutally shaved some of the skin off of Asuma's arm, and Itachi seemingly turned Kurenai's genjutsu around on her, from what I could tell.

Kisame, taking his opening, dashed forward and swung his sword, connecting with Kurenai's side, throwing her towards the river. Before I really processed what I was doing, I had shot forward out of the trees, blinking to get in front of Kurenai, and catching her before she hit the water. I set her down on her feet on the river, realizing the depth of my mistake when I _felt_ rather than saw, Itachi seemingly appearing behind me on the river. Back on the bank, Kisame was flying through hand seals, and the river started to roil. A shark made of water shot out of the water, flying towards Asuma, who seemed to brace himself for a moment before an identical shark shot forward and intercepted Kisame's, causing both to explode, showering us with water from the explosion.

Kisame smiled broadly at this, even laughing a bit as he saw Kakashi step out from behind Asuma. "Oh, Itachi, this just got interesting. Copy Ninja Kakashi decided to show up after all. You know, after you and the little ginger brat over there's fight with Zabuza, I've wanted to fight you. After all, anybody who can beat Zabuza without almost dying in the process is certainly worth lopping apart!" He said, punctuating his last word, by swing his sword down from his shoulder and pointing it at Kakashi. The Kakashi that appeared behind Itachi, headband already pulled up to reveal his Sharingan, looked at me and motioned with his head in a way that said, 'Go help Asuma, I'll deal with Itachi.'

I nodded, jumping up onto shore next to Asuma, crouching down slightly, my hand on the hilt of my katana. Kisame just laughed, swinging his sword menacingly, gearing up for a fight, before Itachi's voice rolled across the area. "Don't fight them yet, Kisame. More have shown up than I planned already. We are looking for something, perhaps you all can help us find it." He said, even more infuriatingly mysterious than Sasuke could be at times.

Kakashi answered for the rest of us before we even had a chance. "What are you looking for?" He asked, a harshness to his voice that I had never heard before. Itachi turned around, his gaze leaving Kurenai and the bank of the river, and focusing on Kakashi.

"Well, you see, we are on the hunt for a rare piece. It's quite special. After all, there's only nine like it in the world." Kakashi's, Asuma's, and Kurenai's hands all tightened around their kunai, and I felt my hand tightening on the hilt of my katana on reflex.

Kakashi's voice got more forceful as he brought his kunai closer to Itachi's throat. "I ask again. What are you looking for?" Kakashi asked, forced calm keeping his voice even.

"I thought it would be quite obvious, Kakashi." Itachi said, unaffected by the kunai held to his throat. "We are looking for the legacy of the Fourth Hokage."

A stunned silence fell across the Jonin present, while I sat there, confused. 'What in the hell are they talking about?' I thought, hoping my face didn't express my clear confusion. I watched as, in the span of maybe a couple seconds, Kakashi jumped away from Itachi as he dropped a brace of shuriken into his hand, only to summon a wall of water as Itachi sent several spirals of water at Kakashi, only for them to be rebuffed by the wall. Itachi appeared behind him, making my eyes widen in surprise at his speed, before Itachi stabbed Kakashi, who melted back into the river, having been a Mizu bunshin. Kakashi burst out of the water a moment later, grabbing Kurenai and pulling her away from the Itachi who was still standing in the same spot where he started just in time for them to get just outside the blast radius of the clone exploding, throwing water up all around it.

Asuma and I stayed on the bank, waiting for Kisame to make his move, before we heard Kakashi yell for Kurenai to not make eye contact with Itachi. Barely a couple seconds after Kakashi jumped away from Itachi, he fell on his hands and knees on top of the river, breathing heavily. Kisame disappeared, appearing next to Itachi in another startling demonstration of speed. Asuma and I dropped down next to Kakashi and Kurenai in response, pointedly not making eye contact with Itachi.

"So, Itachi, should I kick them around a bit before we ask them some questions, or do you want to do questions first, kicking later?" Kisame asked, resting his sword on his shoulder.

"That won't be necessary. I already know everything we need." Itachi said, and I felt shock ripple through my body. Even Kisame seemed a bit confused.

"Naruto is not in the village. To stay here even longer would only alert more people to our presence, which would result in more people showing up to try to stop us. We don't need that. We will take our leave." Itachi said, and both of them disappeared from the river.

A moment later, Kakashi collapsed. Only Asuma grabbing his shoulders kept him from falling into the river. I picked up Kakashi, throwing him over my shoulder, intending on taking him to the hospital. Right then, Might Guy showed up on the river as well. Asuma just looked at him, saying simply, "Uchiha Itachi and Hoshigaki Kisame are after Naruto. He is currently on a mission with Jiraiya-sama to find Tsunade-sama. I believe they were nearing Tanzaku Gai, last time Jiraiya checked in. Find him and warn him." Guy nodded before dashing off.

"Alright, Jeremiah, I think we should get to the hospital." Said Asuma as he clutched the bloody gouge in his arm. I nodded and ran after him to the hospital, carrying Kakashi on my shoulders still.

When we got to the hospital, Kakashi and Asuma were immediately admitted, and the doctors pulled Kakashi off of my shoulder onto a gurney, rushing him down the hall immediately. I sat down, putting my head in my hands, at a loss for what to do. 'I was just another body in that fight. Kisame and Itachi could probably have destroyed us in next to no time, and left without any real problem. They only didn't kill us because Itachi wanted to ask us questions.'

My hands clenched hard, the nails threatening to break through the skin on my palms. 'I have to get stronger. I need to find someone who can help me get stronger.' I thought as I stood up and started walking home. 'How can I help people when I'm not strong enough to protect them? How am I supposed to help Naruto and other people I care about when people like Itachi and Kisame exist in this world?'

'Itachi has already caused Sasuke unimaginable pain by killing his family. What am I supposed to do against people who are too strong to beat one on one, and can overcome being vastly outnumbered? Kisame reportedly killed daimyos, sneaking his way into the compounds, and then fighting his way out against literal legions of samurai, overcoming odds that should be impossible to overcome.' I stopped walking in an alleyway, my hands clenching and unclenching, before roaring in anger and slamming my hand against the brick wall next to me.

Thankfully, I didn't put any chakra behind the blow, so the only things that broke were my knuckles, which had split open and were bleeding. I stared at my knuckles for a long time before running home, washing my hand to clean out my knuckles, and then wrapping them in clean bandages. I pulled a scroll out of my weapons pouch, the one I had gotten from Zabuza. I just sat that way, on my bed, for a long time, staring at the closed scroll.

"God damn it!" I said, throwing the scroll across the room to bounce off of the wall. I stood up, picking the scroll up and putting the scroll back in my weapons pouch. I pulled out my full Anbu mask, turning it over in my hands before putting it on. I left my apartment through the window moments later, heading towards the intelligence office. I stopped at the main desk and got the attention of the man working there.

He looked up, saw the mask, and immediately got scared. 'Good, that'll help.' I thought, staring at him for a long moment. "Anbu-san, what can I do for you?" He asked, his voice shaking slightly. I waited to respond for a couple seconds, just staring at him, watching the shaking in his hand get more intense. The next couple things I asked from him would require him not asking too many questions.

"I need all information you have about or relating to Momochi Zabuza including his last known location, the civil war in Kirigakure, and the resistance movement in Kirigakure." I said, keeping my voice emotionless and monotone. He just nodded, and practically fell over himself to get to the records room. He came back a couple minutes later, holding seven files. I tilted my head to the side, and he stammered out, "Th-th-the top file is everything about Momochi Zabuza, the next four are on the civil war, and the next one is about the resistance movement, mostly their motives and actions over the past two years since they were formed in earnest. The last file is a dossier about every known shinobi or civilian that is part of or is connected to, the resistance."

I nodded, grabbing the files and sealing them away into the scroll I got from Zabuza. I turned and left, the intelligence department worker sighing loudly as I walked out the door, leaving him alone.

I ran home as fast as I could, and started to furiously read through the different files. Zabuza's was the easiest. I had already read through most of his file after the mission to Wave, I really only _needed_ his last known location, but Anbu never ask for just the last location, they ask for the entire file as well, in case there is anything they need to know. Reading through his file, I saw his list of known associates had shortened, with the Demon Brothers dead, and Haku as well. The last page put his last confirmed location not terribly far from Wave.

I read what I could about the civil war, but quickly became too infuriated to keep reading. Konoha had refused to back the people who were clearly trying to fix the pain and oppression that the Yondaime Mizukage had created. There was a small note that said should the rebels start to push back their oppressors, and should Konoha be in a good enough position to give them aid, Konoha would send a couple teams of shinobi to help them win the war.

I ran my hands down my face, looking out the window. The sun had long since gone down, but I needed to complete this. I sealed the files on Zabuza and the civil war back into my scroll, and started opening up the files on the resistance. They had primarily been fighting with guerilla style tactics, never trying to stay around long enough for the enemy to recover or regroup or have reinforcements arrive. But a couple months ago, they got embroiled in a quick skirmish with some of the Yondaime Mizukage's troops, and a quick skirmish quickly turned into a full blown battle. A civilian village that had been there the week prior simply didn't exist anymore. And, sure, the rebels hadn't won the fight exactly, but they hadn't lost. Both sides had mutually retreated to lick their wounds. The rebels were starting to get some real traction in the war. Since that battle, they hadn't done much in the way of big attacks. They had settled for assassinating several key member of the Yondaime's regime, and cutting off what supply lines they could.

I slowly closed the file, sealing it and the personnel file away into my scroll, and putting my scroll back into my weapons pouch. I'd read the last file when I got back after the day's work. I left my apartment, and got to helping rebuild Konoha. Most of the major infrastructure had either been rebuilt by now, or had been largely untouched during the invasion. After lunch, I skipped training to sleep, waking up only to eat dinner before I lay back down, and waking back up sometime around midnight. I opened up the personnel file, seeing several people who had made the bingo book recently. One man, named Ao, wore a blue eye patch over his right eye, with blue hair, talismans dangling from each ear, and, in the picture, wore the traditional blue flak jacket of a Kirigakure shinobi. Another blue haired person, named Chojuro, was apparently a Seven Ninja Swordsman, his sharpened teeth visible in the wide smile he wore in his picture. He had glasses, and though he was smiling, looked fairly unsure of himself.

I leafed through the file further, not seeing a whole lot of people that were of actual note. Most of them were former Kiri shinobi, a good portion of them former Anbu, most of the ones who weren't Anbu had kekkei genkai, especially the ones who hadn't ever been Kiri shinobi. I kept flipping pages, uninterested, until I got to the last page, recognizing the face and hair immediately. It was a face I saw every day when I looked in the mirror, though slightly different in it's own right. I grabbed the picture, putting it in my pocket, and started packing up everything that I would need.

I had had a 'Go bag' hidden in the wall behind my sink since they taught us about them in the academy. It had enough money to get me from Konoha to Iron country, and back again several times over. Most of the money from my missions had gone into this bag, including all the money I earned on the long-term observation mission I had before the Chunin Exams tournament. It had some MREs I had scrounged from the Jounins when I went on missions with them. Before I left, however, I pulled my full Anbu mask out of my weapons pouch, and put it on my kitchen table, face down. I put a quick note inside the mask, and jumped out the window, accidently leaving the rebellion personnel file behind me on the table, right next to my Anbu mask.

A couple minutes later, I found myself running up the walls around Konoha. I waited for a Chunin on patrol to walk past me, before jumping over the top of the wall, running down the other side, and running off into the forest.

A week or so later at a full sprint almost the entire way, I found myself most of the way across the newly made 'Great Naruto Bridge.' I smiled as I reached the end. Looking around, hiding from the civilians, I saw a cliff with a lone tree growing on it. I ran there as fast as I could, and, when I got there, found Zabuza sitting there, cross legged, his massive sword balanced on his knees while he leaned back against the tree, a small grave next to him, really just an engraved piece of driftwood with Haku's mask on top of it.

"I knew you'd come eventually." He said, planting his sword in the ground, and using it to leverage himself up onto his feet. "So, what actually brought you here?" He said, placing his sword on his back as he walked up to me.

I pulled out the picture in my pocket, showing it to him. He nodded, staring at the picture for a long moment, drinking it in with his eyes. "So you found her. I hoped you would eventually." He stood there for a long moment. "I knew her well, before I left. If you want, we can go meet her." He said, showing more compassion than I had seen him show before. I just shook my head. "No, I'm not strong enough. I can't help her yet." Zabuza opened his mouth, and I quickly cut him off. "I know she's plenty strong in her own right, but I want to be able to help her. I can't really help her as I am." Zabuza nodded, silent for a long moment.

"Alright, kid. You want to get strong enough to help her? I can help you get there. But I warn you, this isn't some summer camp. You will bleed, and you most likely will, at some point, cry. I say this, because I know what you will go through. It is the same training that made me who I am today. Can you handle that?" He said, his voice harsh and unforgiving. I nodded, steeling my nerves, and mentally preparing myself.

"Good. We start now." Was the only warning I got before Zabuza shot at me, his massive sword cleaving the air on it's way towards my head. I brought my own katana to bear, blocking the massive sword with the flat of the blade, thought I pulled my left hand from the handle up the blade to brace it against the massive force it was trying to stop. After what seemed like an eternity, Zabuza withdrew his blade.

"Good. If that had killed you, you wouldn't have been worthy of being my student. The real training starts tomorrow, but today we have to move. If I were a betting men, I would bet that at least a couple Konoha Anbu are trying to track you down right now. We need to leave here, and will likely have to keep moving for at least six months. Got it? I'll be back. When I return, we leave." I nodded, and stood there, waiting. Zabuza came back with a Go bag of his own, and we ran off in the direction of the border to find a ship to somewhere that isn't Wave or Konoha.

 **Yugao's POV, the same day**

I stood, talking to Anko, out of uniform, when a boy I recognized as Uzumaki Naruto, flanked by Uchiha Sasuke walked up to us. "Excuse me, ma'am, we're looking for Jeremiah. See, I just got back from a mission, and I kinda wanted to see if he wanted to spar, since I've gotten a lot stronger, and Sasuke wanted to fight him too, 'cause he's gotten a lot stronger too, and, well, basically, Kakashi-sensei said you might know where to find him." I looked at them for a long moment, confused.

"Hasn't Jeremiah been helping with the rebuilding? I saw him just last week helping put back together some lady's restaurant that got blown up during the invasion." I said, tilting my head in confusion. Naruto just shook his head. "No, we went to go ask the Chunin who hands out all the assignments, but apparently that was the last assignment Jeremiah took. He hasn't shown up for missions since."

I looked at Anko, my eyes full of concern for my former student. "Well, I know where he lives, why don't we check there?" I said, leading Anko and the two boys to Jeremiah's apartment. We found the door unlocked, and let ourselves into an apartment that, even though it looked like it had been cleaned out a bit, at best could be described as spartan. The only real decoration in the apartment was a mirror propped up against a wall. Looking around I saw, on the kitchen table, an intelligence file, open to a shinobi file, though the file conspicuously lacked a picture. I grabbed the file, and noticed, lying next to it, the mask I had given Jeremiah, a note lying inside of it. I slowly picked up the note, putting it in a pocket on my flak jacket, and quickly hid the Anbu mask away in my flak jacket as well, though not fast enough for Anko to miss it. Her eyes widened, and I could feel my eyes getting wet. Blinking furiously, I rubbed one of my eyes with the heel of my hand.

"Well, boys, he left this here, so if we go talk to the intelligence division, they might be able to tell us what else he was looking for." I gave a pointed look at Anko and she jumped out the window to go talk to the Hokage. I left the apartment with the two Genin moments later, closing the door behind us. We ran to the intelligence division, bursting through the doors. The man at the front desk looked up, startled. I slammed the file down on his desk, and stared at him hard for a long moment before talking.

"I need to know who last asked for a copy of this file, as well as whatever they asked for, and a complete copy of the original file, I believe this particular copy is missing something." The man behind the desk just shook his head, clearly scared of me, but he must have been more scared of Jeremiah, since he answered by saying, "I'm sorry, miss, but an Anbu came in and requested that file as well as others. I can't say what they were asking for, regular shinobi aren't allowed to know about Anbu business. That was the first thing they taught me when I got here."

"Godammit! I'm an Anbu captain for fuck's sake! Now tell me what this person was looking for, since I assure you that they are not Anbu. I'm the only one in Anbu who wears this mask!" I said, showing the mask that Jeremiah definitely used when he was here. He was shaking quite violently, and ran off to the back, with a very stuttered "Yes, ma'am."

I turned around to see Naruto staring at me with the widest I had ever seen, and even the stoic Uchiha staring at me, curious. I pointed at them threateningly. "You tell anyone what I just revealed there, and I will personally hunt you down and end you." I said, letting Anko's influence on me take over briefly. Both boys nodded dumbly, thoroughly scared, and I turned back around to see the the man carrying seven files in his arms. He dropped them down on the table.

"The Anbu person asked for these files." He said, his voice still wavering slightly. "One is about Zabuza Momochi, including his last known location, four are about the civil war in Kiri, one is about the rebellion's actions in Kiri, and this last file," He said, pulling the bottom file out and handing it to me. "Is the file that you said was missing something. It's a file containing everything we know about all known combatants and noncombatants working for the rebellion. A picture was missing from one of the shinobi dossiers in the file."

I picked up the file, flipping through the file to the last dossier, and immediately stopped when I saw the picture, my breath hitching in surprise. From over my shoulder, I heard Naruto exclaim, "Holy shit, that lady looks just like Jeremiah, if he were a girl and a lot older!" The Uchiha just grunted in agreement. I read the file quickly, seeing words like, 'last known survivor of clan', 'former confidant of the Yondaime Mizukage', and 'wielder of two kekkei genkais'. I had to read the name on the file over and over again for it to really sink in.

'Holy shit, Jeremiah is related to the leader of the rebellion.' I thought, before I scooped up all the files, and sealed them all away into a scroll and tucking it away into a pouch on my flak jacket, putting away the mask I had given Jeremiah as well. I looked at the two Genin, "I have to go talk to the Hokage. Don't tell anyone what happened here today." I said, looking at them, and then the man at the desk. Hearing three 'Yes, ma'am's, I ran off to the Hokage tower, where I found Anko talking to our newly inaugurated Hokage.

"Hokage-sama, I have news." I said, pulling out the scroll, unsealing all of the files I had sealed inside of it. "Jeremiah, a Chunin of Konoha, having been field-promoted by Sarutobi-sama, has left the village. I believe he has gone to join the Kirigakure rebels." The Hokage actually looked rather stunned at this.

"How long has he been gone?" She asked, though it was immediately followed by more questions. "Why did he leave to join the rebels? How did you find out about this? And, finally, why do I care about some no-name Chunin who left? He hardly has any state secrets to sell, am I right?" She looked at me sternly for a long moment, and watched as my face got more and more sullen as she spoke, and her face softened. "I'm sorry. Tell me everything."

And I did. About how Jeremiah had been an orphan who came to Konoha in the hopes of becoming a shinobi, leaving behind any connection to a family he may have had, how he had trained day and night, working himself to the bone in the Academy to become the best that he could. About how that work ethic had not left him when he had been put under my tutelage, and I worked him into the ground. About how he had been longtime friends with Naruto, who the Hokage considered something of a grandson, though the two had never officially said it, it was plain with how they treated each other when they talked. How he had been one of the few to get Sasuke to open up, according to Kakashi, when he accompanied Team Seven on their mission to Wave.

I told her about how he had helped Kakashi face down Zabuza, the Demon of the Mist, how he had killed a boy no more than a year or two older than him while on his first mission. I told her about how he had thrown himself into his training in his grief, and how when he went on a mission to Iron country, he helped Asuma defend Team Ten against the Genin team of Han no Futton, and how Asuma told me that Mifune and Jeremiah had talked after Jeremiah had slaughtered just under a dozen men in self defense. I told Tsunade about how I had requested that Sarutobi-sama let Jeremiah shadow me during the Chunin exams, and how when the exams went belly-up during the second test, Sarutobi had promoted Jeremiah to Chunin so that he could help Team Seven defend themselves against Orochimaru, even though it ended up being futile, and Jeremiah had been in a medically induced coma for several days afterwards so he could heal.

I told Tsunade about how I had requested that Sarutobi let me train Jeremiah in masking his chakra signature and following people while remaining undetected, even though I had to sacrifice my days off. I told Tsunade how I had been so immensely proud that my student, and he was my student, had passed my tests with flying colors, becoming almost a ghost among the streets of Konoha, and I had gifted him one of my old masks as a gift to reward his success. I told Tsunade about how, during the invasion of Konoha, Jeremiah apparently rescued the medic nin in the infirmary of the arena, as well as some injured contestants, before escorting the entire group to the hospital. I told her about how, during the invasion, Jeremiah had fought alongside the Tsuchikage and Roshi no Yoton, helping them as they decimated swathes of invading shinobi. How Jeremiah had helped my team hold the perimeter of the kill area. How, when I was grieving for Hayate, he had come with Kakashi, and though Jeremiah likely came unwittingly, he had stayed, and though he said nothing, just his presence had been comforting.

I told Tsunade about how I hadn't been able to see him since then, but he had apparently been throwing himself into helping the village rebuild, and still training as hard as he could. I told her about how Kurenai had told me that Jeremiah and Kakashi had shown up to help her and Asuma against Kisame and Itachi when they showed up in the village. I told Tsunade about how, somewhere along the way, I had started seeing Jeremiah as part of the family that I had long lost hope in having. And I told her about how Jeremiah had left to look for a woman named Mei Terumi, the leader of the Kiri rebels. I told her about how alike Jeremiah and Mei Terumi looked, and that she had to be related to him. I told her about how happy I was that Jeremiah had finally found his family, but that it came at the cost of him leaving the village, possibly forever. And by the end, I found myself kneeling in front of the Hokage, tears streaming down my face, with Anko hugging me from behind.

When I was done talking, Tsunade sat there, a sad, almost wistful look on her face, as she looked at me. "It is a shame to lose such a remarkable shinobi. And I am truly sorry for what you have to go through, especially after all you have done and sacrificed for this village. However. The rules on these type of matters are very clear cut, and I cannot afford to be lenient about this, not when I just got into office. I will make my announcement tomorrow. I am very sorry, but Jeremiah must be declared a rogue shinobi. I will assess his threat ranking tonight, and, by the end of the day tomorrow, he will be in the Bingo book." Tsunade said, and though the words she said were cold and harsh, her tone was anything but, like she knew what I was going through, or at least had felt something similar.

I stood up, and wiped my tears, taking a deep breath. "Hai, Hokage-sama. As you say. You cannot afford for this to happen again especially so soon into your tenure. I understand. You need to make an example of him." I turned to leave, and my hand was on the doorknob when I heard Tsunade speak, calling after me.

"Yugao, for what it's worth, I know what you are going through, and I am deeply, deeply sorry." I just bowed my head, turning the doorknob and walking out, hearing Anko following close behind me. I let Anko follow me all the way home, where I promptly lay down on the couch in the apartment Hayate and I had shared for so long, and pulled out the note that was still in my flak jacket. It was written on a small piece of paper, that looked like it had been torn from one of the files. I looked at it for a long time, not really reading it while Anko started making some food in my kitchen. It took Anko coming out and asking me what it said for me to really read it.

In deliberate and neat handwriting that perfectly represented Jeremiah, he had written, 'Cat, sorry, Yugao, hard habit to break. I am really sorry. I know that my leaving can't be easy for you. I've come to think of you as something like the older sister I never had, and if you feel similarly, I know that this isn't easy for you. I'm sorry for that. I appreciate everything you've done for me, and I will never be able to thank you enough. I hope you understand that I have to meet Mei Terumi. I know I'll probably be labeled a missing nin, and I should be, I'm leaving for a really selfish reason. I want you to know that, no matter what family I find abroad, you will always, to me, you will always be my older sister, and I will never forget you.

-Jeremiah Terumi'

 **The Next Day, Sasuke's POV**

All the shinobi in the village were called to the Hokage mansion pretty early in the morning today. I had walked over with Naruto and Sakura, and though Sakura was still annoying the shit out of me, Naruto and I had finally started to get along really well. Life was starting to go really well for us. I had my curse mark under control, Kakashi-sensei was out of the hospital, and, apparently, Naruto was going to leave on some big training trip with Jiraiya in the next month or so. I had talked to Kakashi, and he had said that, if I wanted to go on one too, he would talk to the Hokage, and get something worked out. I was, for the first time in a long time, genuinely happy.

But the universe likes to fuck me and Naruto over, and, even though we were really happy, we didn't know what had happened to Jeremiah. We hadn't seen him for what seemed like forever, and, when we try to find him by talking to his sensei, we get dragged along on a trip that ended with her shouting at an intelligence officer, and threatening us to keep our mouths shut. It wasn't hard to figure out that Jeremiah had probably left the village, probably to look for Zabuza and that Mei woman who looked so much like him.

So, standing in front of the Hokage's mansion, I was more than a little worried, and Naruto looked like he was too. Our friend, who we had gotten to know pretty well disappeared and the next day the Hokage calls us all together to tell us something? That is not a recipe for a happy. So Naruto and I stood with Kakashi and Sakura, surrounded by the rest of the Rookie Nine and their senseis, as Tsunade Senju, our Godaime Hokage walks forward to the railing and clears her throat.

"Konoha shinobi, yesterday, it was discovered that Jeremiah Terumi, previously of no clan affiliation, has left the village. As we cannot spare the manpower currently, we will not send anyone after him. However, he has been added to the Bingo book with a bounty on his head of 500,000 ryo, dead or alive." I heard Asuma scoff from behind us, causing several of us to turn our heads. He looked at us, and our confused faces before he responded. "Please, the kid's worth at least ten times that amount. Tsunade's doing the kid a favor. His bounty is relatively low for how good he his, which means that he'll easily kick the shit out of hunter nin and bounty hunters looking for a weak kid to beat up and get an easy bounty. Iwagakure listed the reward for the kid at six million ryo." Kakashi even looked surprised at that, thought likely for a different reason than us.

"I thought he helped the Tsuchikage fight off Suna and Oto shinobi?" Kakashi asked, to which Asuma only shrugged. "I guess he helped a little too well for the Tsuchikage's liking." Asuma said, lighting another cigarette.

Tsunade's voice boomed out again, grabbing all our attention immediately."Let it be known, however, that should any more of you try to desert this village, I will send every available Anbu and shinobi after you. Not to bring you in so we can put you in jail. If you desert the village, I will send shinobi to kill you and bring me your head so I can give them reward money for a job well done." Tsunade said, turning sharply on her heel and walking back into the Hokage mansion.

"Hope none of you all were planning on deserting, doesn't look like it's much of an option anymore." Kakashi joked, his eye curled up, indicating he was smiling. I just nodded in stunned silence, as I walked with Naruto, Sakura, and Kakashi to go get some food. News like that needed to be properly processed over some barbeque.

 **The same time, Iwagakure**

Kurotsuchi burst into the Tsuchikage's office, furious, and flanked by Roshi, who looked pissed as well, and Han, who looked as impassive as ever. "What the hell is this, jiji?" She said, slamming a black leather book on the Tsuchikage's desk.

"Well, that looks rather like a Bingo book, if I'm not mistaken." Onoki said, his face and voice emotionless.

"That's not what I'm talking about and you know it! Why is Jeremiah in the Bingo book with a reward of six million?" Kurotsuchi asked, flipping to the page in the book that showed Jeremiah's Konoha registration photo.

"Because he is dangerous." "He probably save my life!" "I don't care!" Onoki yelled, slamming his hands on his desk, sufficiently cowing his granddaughter. "At 13, he was fighting Anbu and Jounin to defend Konoha against an invasion. I don't want to see what he can do should he reach 16! I don't want another Copy Ninja Kakashi, or Yellow Flash, or Sannin, or White Fang. I know it is extremely unlikely that he will be as strong as them, especially the Yellow Flash, but I can't take these chances! Uchiha Itachi and Hatake Kakashi are perfect examples of what he might turn into. Itachi is an S-rank shinobi who can kill daimyos and walk out unscathed, and Hatake has probably one of the greatest mission completion and success rates of any shinobi I've seen, and that's not counting the Anbu missions. They both have body counts the size of a small mountain, and neither look like they have any intention of stopping."

Kurotsuchi, now quiet, just stood there with her head down. Roshi as well, though he was not looking down, looked sufficiently cowed. Seconds later, a messenger fell through the door in a huff, breathing heavily.

"Tsuchikage-sama, I have important news. You said you wanted to hear about anything major that happened inside Konoha, right? Well, we just got news that Jeremiah Terumi has been disavowed by Konoha's Hokage Tsunade Senju. He fled the village and has since been marked as a rogue shinobi. It is believed that he has joined up with the rogue shinobi Momochi Zabuza, and is likely going to join up with Mei Terumi and the Kirigakure rebellion." The messenger said, straightening up, and staring silently at the Jinchuuriki of the Yonbi and the Gobi, as well as the Tsuchikage and his granddaughter, who all stood in stunned silence.

The tsuchikage, in one sentence, summed up the feeling of the room. "Well, fuck, that can't be anything good."

 **(A/N) Hey guys! Hope you all enjoyed the chapter. In case you couldn't figure it out, no Sasuke retrieval arc. I'm not a huge fan of it. It purposefully pits Naruto and Sasuke against each other as the others foil for shippuden, and I don't like it. I also think Naruto spends far too much time searching for Sasuke, when he could and should be training so that he can fight Akatsuki better. Don't worry, Sasuke will still still get a summoning contract, though I'm deciding which one to give him as I write this. Naruto and Sasuke will come out of their respective training trips hopefully stronger than in Shippuden but we'll see.**

 **The next chapter will be a filler chapter that runs down some of what Jeremiah goes through while training with Zabuza, and will probably have him meeting his last living blood relative. So, tune in next time! PEACE!**


	15. Chapter 15

**Hey all, welcome back, I own nothing. Like, legit. Nothing. And definitely not Naruto.**

…

 **Six months after leaving the village:**

"Get the fuck up, I'm not training a little bitch, am I?!" yelled Zabuza, his sword on his shoulder. I slowly pushed myself up onto my feet, standing a bit shakily. Zabuza shot forward towards me again, and I ducked just in time, the cuts and bruises on my legs and torso protesting painfully.

I jumped up over the return swing, swinging my outstretched foot towards Zabuza's head, only for him to catch it with one hand. With a yell, I exploded steam chakra from tenketsu all along the back of my calf and my heel, pushing my foot through Zabuza's defenses, and sending him spiralling away into the sparse tree line. I landed a moment later, breathing heavily, and saw Zabuza walking towards me, his sword on his shoulder again.

"Good!" Zabuza said, lowering his sword. "Now, hit me again!" He said, shooting forward, his sword held behind me, getting ready to swing. I sighed heavily, and bent my knees slightly in anticipation for another beating.

...

 **Six months later:**

My stamina had, thankfully, gotten better, but Zabuza continues to be capable of simply outlasting me, ignoring the damage I do to him. He swatted me away from him with the flat of his sword, throwing me through a tree. I shot forward, pulling my katana from its sheath across my back as I ran, lightning chakra coursing across my nerves. Zabuza swung at me, trying to bisect me at the waist. I jumped up, spinning in midair to stab my katana through the circular hole at the tip of his sword, pinning his sword in place temporarily.

I dodged around the punch Zabuza threw at me, popping up right in front of his face, my arm cocked back. With the aid of lightning chakra, my fists were a blur for a couple seconds as I pummeled Zabuza brutally about his chest and head, finishing the barrage with a foot planted in his chest, propelling him away with a quick application of steam chakra. Zabuza broke through a couple trees, immediately standing up, a manic grin on his face.

"Good! AGAIN!" He yelled, dashing towards me. I brought my hands up to guard my face from the rain of blows that followed moments later. I ducked under a punch that flew wild, spinning around Zabuza before jumping up and kicking him square in the back, forcing him to stumble forward a couple steps. I didn't realize my mistake until his hand closed around the hilt of the Kubikiribocho, pulling it up so it wasn't hindered by my katana anymore.

"Well, shit." I said, eloquent as ever, as Zabuza ran forward again, opening up a gash down my right forearm before I could jump away.

...

 **Ten Months Later:**

"You know, since I learned about rogue shinobi, I've always wondered where you guys buy equipment, since most shinobi blacksmiths are in the Hidden Villages, or Iron Country." I said, staring at what seemed to be simply a rundown, old, kinda dumpy, shack.

"Well, I suppose it's time to pull back the curtain, or whatever that saying is." Zabuza said, pushing open an old wooden door and stepping into the shack. I followed moments later, looking around in awe. Not because the inside of the shack was incredible, no. The interior was as shitty as the exterior. No, I was looking around in awe at the sheer volume of weapons the proprietor had managed to fit on the walls and ceiling.

"Look, kid, if you're serious about this, you're going to need a refresh on kunai and shuriken. Come on, let's get this shit done." Zabuza said, standing at the counter. I walked up next to him, pulling out all the money I had from when I left Konoha. I looked at the old man behind the counter, putting my money on the counter.

"How many kunai and shuriken can this get me?" I asked, letting the old man count my money. He hummed and grunted a bit for a minute or so, before he put the money back on the counter.

"Should be good enough to get you through about six months of missions, give or take a couple weeks or so." The old man said, in a voice that made him sound several millennia old. I swear, as he talked, dust floated out of his mouth from his voice box, that's how old this dude was. I nodded to him, thinking for a second, before nodding again more confidently.

"That should be good. I'll get them." I said, pulling out a scroll, and sealing away the kunai and shuriken as he put them on the counter.

...

 **Two Months Later, in the Kiri rebel camp:**

Ao burst into the tent, throwing the flaps off to the side as he walked in in a slight panic. Mei looked up from the map she was poring over, pulling a stray piece of hair back behind her ear. "What's wrong Ao, did something happen?" She said, confused.

"Ummm, I'm not sure, ma'am. Some people just showed up that I think you should see." He said, cryptically, walking out of the tent, and Mei hurried to catch up, and they started walking side by side towards the edge of the camp. "What's going on Ao? Who are these people?" Mei asked, looking concerned that there could be a potential threat to the rebels right at their base.

"Well, ma'am, I only recognize them from the Bingo book." Ao said, and watched Mei's face fall in despair. They had been dreading the day that Yagura started hiring nukenin to bolster his forces. All the nukenin worth hiring would wreak devastation on the rebel's ranks. Ao and Mei hurried through the empty camp, and after a minute, found every rebel that wasn't injured or on a mission surrounding two people. Mei recognized the older one immediately as Momochi Zabuza, the Demon of the Mist, looking pretty much the same as when she last saw him before he tried to assassinate Yagura, though he was missing a flak jacket.

The other one drew the majority of her attention, however. He couldn't have been older than 15 or 16, and yet stood next to Zabuza as impassive and unconcerned about the shinobi around them as the Demon himself. With navy blue pants and his legs wrapped in bandages from mid calf down, black sandals, and a navy blue cutoff, showing off his lean arms, that were crisscrossed with barely visible scars and were currently crossed over his chest in either boredom or aggravation, it was hard to tell. His hair, vibrant red, was pulled back into a low ponytail, and his sea green eyes almost seemed to blend into the mist when it roiled up and partially obscured his face. He wore what looked like a broken Anbu mask on the bottom half of his face, and the hilt of a katana poked up over his shoulder. The strap for the sheath of the katana was black and went over his chest. A glint of metal caught her eye, but his crossed arms covered what she assumed to be a forehead protector from his old village. Zabuza's gaze lazily drifted over to Mei, and his eyes widened very subtly. He nudged the teenager, drawing his attention over to Mei.

"Oh, good, the people we actually want to talk to. What took so long? We've been waiting forever." He said in mock exasperation, dropping his arms, revealing a stylized leaf on the forehead protector, though it had long had a slash put right through the middle of it. "So, can you tell the cannon fodder to leave so Zabuza-san and I can talk to you in private?"

Ao choked and spluttered in surprise when Mei just waved at the rebels dismissively. "Ma'am, you can't be serious?" He said, before halting right where he was when Mei's head lowered, shadowing her eyes. "Ao, shut up, or I will kill you." She said, in a dark tone that left him with no doubts that she would do it. She straightened back up and smiled slightly at the two nukenin, gesturing for them to follow her, Ao following close behind her.

The teenager and the demon just looked at each other and shrugged before following after the two, watching as the rebels parted in front of them as they walked.

...

Zabuza and I followed Mei into a tent with a large wooden table that had a map of Mizu no Kuni spread out on top of it. I pulled my mask off as we walked into the tent, putting it into my weapons pouch on my back. Mei turned to look at us when we walked in after her, and recognition flashed in her eyes briefly as she looked at me, before shifting her gaze to Zabuza. She took a deep breath, and let it out slowly before she started talking.

"You've both put me in a very bad position." She said, rubbing her forehead exasperatedly. "You know, what with being nukenin and all. Now, if I was a kage, I could readily accept you into my village, and the other villages would have to just accept it. But, this isn't a village. And right now, one of the really big factors that's helping us keep Yagura on his back foot is the support we are getting from the other four Great Nations, and they might withdraw their support if I start hiring nukenin."

I looked at Zabuza and, after a second of internal debate, he nodded his head. "So, don't hire us." Mei and Ao, who I recognized from the file I pulled in Konoha, looked greatly taken aback. "Let me explain. You won't pay us, per say. We will help you and fulfill missions for you, but we won't actually get paid. Not in money, at least. Zabuza and I can be your ghosts behind enemy lines. We'll kill who you ask, when you ask, but, we get to stay in a tent whenever we're here, and any meals the other rebels get, we get too, when we're in the camp."

I paused for a moment to let Mei and Ao digest what I'd said so far before I continued. "We will hide our faces, and anything distinctive about ourselves when we are in the camp. We will be nonentities to your rebel forces. Nothing more than mysteries who arrive every so often and leave soon after." I waited patiently with Zabuza as Ao and Mei had a small side conversation. They turned back to us after a minute of talking, with questions on their lips.

"You seem to be getting the raw end of the deal. All that work for very little reward. What else do you want?" Mei asked, her eyes betraying the lack of trust she had for us.

I could practically feel Zabuza's smile next to me as he answered. "We want you to promise that we can become registered Kirigakure shinobi when this is all over and your rebels appoint you Mizukage." Ao stood there in shocked silence while Mei just looked between the two of us for a couple seconds, before a small smile broke out on her face.

"I can agree to that. Sounds good. I will have to throw you both out of this camp, you understand? At least officially, you will never be allowed into the camp again." She said, sadness flickering briefly across her face. We both nodded and turned on our heels to walk out of the tent.

"Come see me tomorrow morning to get your first assignment, okay?" Was the last thing Mei said to us before we left the tent and she marched us to the edge of the rebel camp. "We refuse to work with nukenin! Get out of here, and if I see you here again, I'll kill you!" Mei yelled at us when we reached the edge of camp. I turned around to look at her, my mask returned firmly to my face, and saw amusement dancing in her eyes that looked so much like mine, a small smile tugging at the ends of her lips. Zabuza and I nodded solemnly before disappearing into the mist.

We came back early the next day, as Mei had asked, though this time we were covered in forest green cloaks, with the hoods pulled up to cover our heads and leave our faces in shadow. We stood in the tent with Mei as she leaned over the map. She pointed at two different locations, both fairly well protected fortresses.

"In each of these fortresses, there is a major leader in Yagura's regime, with a false sense of security. Each of you will kill these leaders, without killing any guards if you can. Got it?" She looked up at us expectantly. We each nodded, and she straightened up. "Zabuza, you're free to go, I want to talk to your compatriot." Zabuza nodded and left immediately.

Mei walked up to me, smiling slightly. "My extended family were all killed during the bloodline purges. My father and mother managed to hide my older sister and I from the Anbu, and, years later, I was able to join Kirigakure to become a kunoichi, under the guise of having no family, though that wasn't exactly true. My sister continued to live as a civilian for years, staying in hiding, never telling anyone her clan name. I sent any money I could spare to her for a couple years, but, somewhere around fifteen years ago, she disappears, and I never hear from her again. And then, suddenly, a teenager who reportedly shares my clan name shows up in my camp, looking startlingly similar to my sister, albeit more masculine. So, what is that about?" She finished, her eyebrow raised questioningly as she stared into the shadows of my hood.

I just smiled, "Well, I'm sure that if you had a nephew, he would unbelievably happy to have finally been able to meet his Aunt, and even happier that she decided to let him help her accomplish her goals. I'm sorry, Mei, but I really must be going. See, I have this big important mission that I was given by someone I don't want to disappoint." I said, leaving a laughing Mei behind me as I opened the flap of the tent and disappeared from the camp.

...

 **Three Months Later:**

The Iwagakure shinobi had shown up a week ago, and Aunt Mei had sent them to take a fortress that was supposed to be relatively undefended, based off of what our spies had told us. The shinobi were on their way to the fortress right now. Unfortunately, the shinobi guarding the fortress numbered far above what the spies had told us, and, combined with the fact that they would see the Iwagakure contingent coming from a mile away, Zabuza and I had made the decision to take the fortress ourselves, since we were already inside.

I climbed up to the tallest point of the fortress, which happened to be the roof above the commander's quarters. I straightened up and started to weave some hand seals for a jutsu I had yet to master so I could use it in battle, but it would be perfect for this situation. When I finished the seals, my chakra spread out through the mist around the fortress, thickening it and pulling it closer into the fortress, condensing it as much as I could manage, all within the span of a second or two.

After a second, the mist started heating up, vaporizing instantly into superheated steam and trying to escape and dissipate into the atmosphere, but my chakra reeled it back in, keeping it in check, creating a bubble of sorts around the fortress. It took a moment for it to happen, but all the men that were outside started to freak out as any exposed skin started to melt away under the immense heat of the steam, while the corrosive superheated steam started eating through their clothing. I held the jutsu for a minute, but dropped it the second a man looked like he was going to scream, which was actually sort of impressive, as most had already passed out from the pain.

I dashed over to him, drawing my katana from my hip as I ran, and separated head from body before a sound could escape his throat. Once my jutsu had dissipated sufficiently, Zabuza appeared next to me on the battlements, the Kubikiribocho out for the first time in a while. We made quick work of most of the men that were outside by cutting their heads off. We immediately made our way inside, the very epitome of the ghosts we were supposed to be. Most of the shinobi never saw us coming. Those who did were decapitated before they could say anything. The last person we went for was the commander. He turned around to face us as we came in the door, but died the moment he saw us, as Kubikiribocho lived up to it's name, having been thrown by Zabuza when we entered the room.

We left immediately afterwards, and I reported to Mei what we had done. She just nodded, looking displeased about something, before waving me off, indicating that we were done for the time being. I nodded and left without another word, drifting through the camp silently to the tent I used when I was here, and immediately lying down and passing out.

...

 **One Month Later, Kurotsuchi's POV:**

The Kirigakure rebels were finally starting to make real headway against the Fourth Mizukage, and were cashing in on the promises the other nations had made them. Kumo had sent their share of shinobi, though there weren't many, as had Konoha, with similar results. Sunagakure had not sent any shinobi, though apparently, they had increased their funding to the rebels almost three-fold. Iwagakure had, of course, promised aide, and, unfortunately, my team had drawn the short straw. Jiji hadn't sent many people of any real note, but he had sent me and Akatsuchi, which he had deemed as enough, and then stuck us with a bunch of incompetents.

So, here we were, sitting in what amounted to little more than an unnecessarily foggy jungle, unable to see more than thirty feet in front of us, in a camp that had been crowded well before the other nations started sending shinobi. Luckily, Mei and I seemed to get along pretty well, and she seemed sympathetic to the fact that I had nothing to do. We had only had one mission the entire time we had been there. Mei had sent us to go take a fortress, but when we got there, we found the entire place silent, and dead bodies everywhere. Some had either indescribably bad burns to the point where it looked like the flesh was melting, or massive slashes, but most of the unfortunate bastards had been burned and cut to death. I would say that of all the bodies we saw, perhaps a third of them still actually had their head connected to their bodies.

So, when dinner rolled around the same time it did every day, I found myself eating the sushi and soup the cooks had made, talking to Mei inside what she called the 'planning tent'. It had little more than a large table with a map of Mizu no Kuni spread across it, but it was better than having to sit in silence with Akatsuchi again. A burst of lightning was the only warning I got before someone, probably a man, given the build, just under six foot, appeared in the tent with us, nearly scaring me into dropping my food. He wore a forest green cloak that hid everything from me. A hand came out, holding an envelope that he handed to Mei, saying nothing but "It's done." before he disappeared again in the same flash as before.

She just looked at the envelope for a moment, smiling briefly, before throwing it on top of the map, laughing slightly at my shocked face. "I swear, he's so dramatic sometimes." She said, continuing to eat.

"What the hell did I just see?" I said, looking back and forth between Mei and the envelope on the map. Mei smiled at me cryptically before saying "A close friend of mine. He does things for the rebellion that would make most Anbu slightly squeamish. Him and his compatriot have been integral parts of this rebellion. They assassinate key supporters of Yagura, help take fortresses, interrogate enemy ninja for information." I just stared at her, nonplussed.

"None of those sound that bad, it just sounds like normal Anbu activity." I stared at her, blankly, waiting for a response. "Well, sure, when I say it like that, it doesn't sound bad. But, Anbu traditionally use genjutsu, extortion, bribery, and light physical torture, like breaking some minor bones to interrogate people and get the information that they want, correct?" I nodded, intrigued.

"Well, they use some more brutal, more painful methods, since neither of them are too keen on using genjutsu." "What kinds?" I blurted out, before clapping a hand over my mouth.

"I'm sorry, I'm just really curious now." I said, to which Mei only waved her hands dismissively.

"You're fine. It's fine. Have you ever played hangman, Kurotsuchi?" Mei asked, and I nodded my head, confused. "Well, those two have a habit of playing what they call 'Reverse Hangman' with the people they interrogate. It usually just ends with severed fingers or toes, but one particular supporter of Yagura wouldn't answer their questions, and ended up having his fingers and toes all cut off, and he still stayed quiet until they lopped his arm off." My mouth dropped open in shock, and Mei just sat there and nodded slowly for a couple seconds, before motioning to her bicep.

"Right there. Clean through. They cauterized it almost immediately, but it still made a fairly impressive shower of blood. I try not to watch any of their interrogations anymore. I'm not opposed to it, it's just not exactly what I'm looking for in my day." Mei seemed unconcerned by the disgust that was evident on my face, and continued to calmly eat her sushi as if nothing was wrong.

"How could someone do something like that to another person?" I asked, putting my food on the table, suddenly having lost my appetite.

Mei just shrugged at me, "It just so happens that their part in the resistance is much more violent and gruesome than the rest of ours."

"If that's how you choose to think about it." I said, standing up and walking towards the flap of the tent. "Dinner, up until your murderous errand boy showed up, was actually quite enjoyable." I pushed back the flap and walked through into a camp cheering in happiness. How I didn't hear it absolutely baffled me, until I saw seals running along the edge of the canvas of the tent. Mei walked out behind me, a small smile on her face, her hands clasped behind her back, looking the part of a benevolent future Kage.

"My 'errand boy' as you described him, just returned from hopefully his last mission in this war. He and his companion snuck their way into Kirigakure itself, and assassinated what remained of Yagura's advisors and military leaders, luckily only six men, before making their way back out, knowing full well that should they be caught and their identities revealed, they and their actions would be condemned immediately by the resistance, and that death would be a preferable option to capture." Mei looked at me, her eyes hardening. "A man once said that ordinary citizens and shinobi are able to sleep easy at night because rough men stand ready to deliver violence upon those who would do them harm. Every ruling body has their fair share of rough men. Every Great Nation has their Anbu division, Konoha has the Twelve Guardian Shinobi, Kumo has the Kinkaku Force, Iwa has the Explosive Corps, Suna has their Puppet Brigade, and, before the rebellion, Kiri had the Seven Ninja Swordsmen."

She paused, and looked over at a boy with blue hair, glasses, and a massive two-handled sword on his back. "We're working on the next generation of the Swordsmen, but until then, we will make do with my errand boy and his partner." She turned on her heel and walked back into her tent with a bit of a flourish, leaving me to mull over my own thoughts.

...

 **In the tent, Jeremiah POV:**

Mei walked in and threw her arms around my shoulders in a hug as I stood there, looking and feeling numb, having discarded my cloak for the time being. We stood there silently for a minute before I sat down on the chair recently vacated by Kurotsuchi. Mei pulled her chair next to me, and put her hand on my shoulder.

"We do all this work, all this planning with Zabuza, all this preparation, months of it, and we get to the Mizukage's tower, and find that he died a little over two years ago! It was a waste of time, all of it!" I yelled, holding my head in my hands. I felt Mei's hand squeeze my shoulder, and turned to her before looking at the flap of the tent.

"Everyone outside seems to be ecstatic that the war is just about over. There's just a few small pockets of Yagura supporters left, we could move and take Kirigakure right now, if you wanted, though we shouldn't wait long." I paced back and forth as Mei stood silent, her face unreadable.

"You know that nobody can ever learn about what Zabuza and I have done the past couple months, right? Or, at the very least, they can never be allowed to make the connection between us and the robed men. Most everyone else will react with much more hostility and anger than Kurotsuchi, even though most of them have slaughtered and tortured just like we have." Mei just nodded. "Well, I thought that went unsaid, but, of course, unless in the future, you wish to tell someone, they will never know that you and Zabuza have given invaluable help to the resistance." Mei said, smiling sadly.

"Good, we're on the same page, then." I said, schooling my face into a carefully neutral mask, before surprising Mei by hugging her suddenly and thanking her before disappearing from the tent.

...

 **One Month later:**

Zabuza and I, at long last, stood in front of Mei as she sat behind the desk of the Mizukage, Ao flanking her on her left, and the Swordsman Chojuro on her right. "Momochi Zabuza and Terumi Jeremiah, your bid to become Kirigakure shinobi has been recognized and approved. As of this moment, you have been instated as your last active shinobi rank. As such, Jeremiah, you have been instated as a Chunin, and Zabuza, you have been instated as a Jounin. You will be given your flak jackets and headbands at the end of this meeting, when you have been assigned your duties. Ao, Chojuro, if you would step out and give us a minute." She said, motioning toward the door, and Chojuro and Ao left, though Ao looked as disgruntled as last time.

"Zabuza, I would like you to step back into your position of Kiri Anbu, however with a slight twist. I would be very happy if you would take the position of Anbu Commander. The only reason you didn't have it when you served Yagura was because you quit to become a Seven Ninja Swordsman. So, Zabuza, will you accept your appointment?" Mei asked, smiling as Zabuza seemed to mull it over for a moment before grunting.

"Fuck it, might as well. Should at least be interesting." Zabuza said, grabbing one of the flak jackets and accepting the new, clean, not scratched forehead protector from her, and tying it around his neck, as well grabbing the blank white Anbu mask that denoted the Anbu Commander in Kiri, before putting it on. "I'll let you and the kid talk privately." He walked out, closing the door behind him as his Kubikiribocho disappeared in a puff of smoke, sealed away in a storage seal tattooed on his left arm.

"I know that in Konoha, you were training to become an Anbu, and you were then trained for right around two years with a no longer former Anbu. However, I don't want you to join the Kiri Anbu, though, technically, you will be a member." My eyebrow quirked up in confusion as I tilted my head slightly. "I want you to be my personal bodyguard, as well as an advisor, much like how Ao and Chojuro operate. I'll obviously have Ao and Chojuro with me as my public guards, just like how other Kages will tend to travel with their Jonin Commander and the leader of their special forces. However, as good as Ao and Chojuro are, I know that you are better and are better at staying hidden. All three of you will likely be consulted about decisions I make, however, no one but Zabuza, Ao, Chojuro, you, and myself, will know what you do here, and I would very much like to keep it that way."

I smiled softly, walking closer to the table, and tying the forehead protector around my left bicep. "I would be glad to accept that job. I will be happy to spend my days helping you run this village, even if it is from the shadows." I picked up the flak jacket, and made an annoyed face before cutting the shoulder pads off, leaving it as a high collared vest like how it is worn in Konoha. I put it on, tying my sword back on top of it, leaving the scratched out Konoha headband visible.

"So, do I get a mask?" I asked, smiling like a child in a candy shop. Mei just rolled her eyes exasperatedly, before pulling out a mask that was styled to look like a boar. I looked at Mei, a bit confused when I just saw her smiling again.

"Boars symbolize strength and familial protection. I thought it would be apropos." She said, making me smile and I put it on immediately. Mei called for Chojuro and Ao and they came in a moment later, Ao with an approving look on his face, having once been an Anbu himself.

"Our first thing we need to discuss is the Chunin Exam that Suna and Konoha are hosting. It seems a bit impromptu, and I don't think it would be a great idea to send the Genin that just took their official graduation test."

Ao nodded, "I agree, Mizukage-sama, not only do none of our Genin have any real mission experience, but we did just recruit two nukenin, one of which used to be a member of Konoha. I doubt our Genin would be terribly welcome, given that fact, and I don't think the exams would go well." I just nodded my agreement, as did Chojuro. Mei clapped her hands in finality, and signed a scroll that would be given to her secretary to mail the next day.

"Well, I've done everything else for today, so, all of you come back here at around eight, and we'll get to it." Mei said, smiling. "Jeremiah, you will join me in the residential wing of this tower, you'll be across the hall from me. C'mon, let's all get some sleep."

...

 **Iwagakure, Four Months later:**

I walked into Iwagakure for the second time in my life as I followed Mei, Ao, and Chojuro through the mountain passage. When we came out the other side, I was amazed by the difference in welcome I received as a Kiri shinobi compared to when I showed up as a Konoha shinobi. Granted, the Iwa citizens and shinobi clearly weren't happy to see me, but they didn't level angry glares at me with every step I took, so I chose to count it as a victory.

I'm sure the Konoha symbol I openly wore across my chest to secure my sword on my back probably wasn't helping, but it was scratched through. I had had to forego my mask while on this "diplomatic mission" that Mei dragged me along on, in the idea of openness and civility. We were escorted to the Tsuchikage's office, where I noticed he had flanked himself with one more person that Mei had. To the Tsuchikage's right were Kurotsuchi, who was wearing a Chunin flak jacket that looked barely a year old, and Roshi, who winked at me, and to his left were Kurotsuchi's old teammate Akatsuchi, grinning amiably, and Han, who, as always, stared at me with his vaguely veiled aggression and annoyance.

Mei started the meeting off by saying, "Tsuchikage-dono, it was a joy to hear that you wanted to meet and discuss a partnership of sorts. I quite look forward to the next couple days of deliberation and discussion to hammer out the details of our partnership." The Tsuchikage grunted slightly, looking over all of the others before his gaze settled on me and stayed on me for longer than I was comfortable with, and though outwardly I remained impassive, internally I was having a minor freakout. 'Why the fuck is the Tsuchikage staring at me for so long?'

"Yeah, well, figured, might as well. You are, in a sense, a new village, so thought I would extend an olive branch. The meetings can wait to start until tomorrow. For now, my granddaughter and my friend Roshi will show you to the hotel you will be staying in while you are in my village." He motioned to Kurotsuchi and Roshi, who led us out of the room and building.

Once we were out of the building, Roshi immediately turned to me, "So, Jeremiah, what've you been up to the last couple years hmmmmmm? And how do you like being back in Iwagakure?" Both questions caused all four other heads to snap over to look at us, Mei in concern that someone like Roshi was asking such pointed questions, Ao and Chojuro in confusion, likely over the fact that I had been to Iwa before, and Kurotsuchi because, honestly, I don't think she had recognized me until then, since she had been staring rather intently at Mei.

"Well, Roshi-san, I have been training primarily. Of course, I recently found Mei-sama. Other than that, I've been… travelling." I said, smirking slightly. "Iwagakure has it's draws certainly. It is an interesting village, and has some very unique buildings and restaurants that I haven't found anywhere else as of yet. But, of course, the people of Iwagakure are what really make it what it is."

Roshi almost looked discouraged, before he decided to zero in on something I said. "Oh, so you would say that the biggest draw about Iwa is the people, huh? Anyone in particular?" He said, waving his eyebrows goofily, trying to get me to admit to something, clearly, but what, I wasn't quite sure, so I went with a purely ridiculous answer.

"Obviously Han-sama is the real draw. He's such a colorful and interesting person." I said emotionlessly, giving Roshi my best deadpan look. "He's really the true life of the party."

Roshi just laughed uproariously, wiping the corners of his eyes to wipe away the tears that were leaking out in his mirth. Kurotsuchi chuckled slightly before slapping her hand over her mouth and blushing slightly, which only made Roshi laugh harder. Mei, Chojuro, and Ao all looked between me and Roshi with the biggest looks of disbelief on their faces. I just smiled and continued walking with Roshi to the hotel.

...

The next day, hour after hour was spent inside a conference room of sorts, with a round table and chairs lining it. Mei and Onoki sat exactly opposite each other, and the bodyguards filled in on either side. Onoki had apparently decided to forego his fourth guard, Akatsuchi, likely since Mei had only brought the three of us. Only one bodyguard sat to each leader's left, and I found myself sitting next to Roshi, who in turn was next to Han, who was the closer of the two to the Tsuchikage, while Ao and Chojuro sat to Mei's right, with Kurotsuchi on her grandfather's left, with Ao on her left.

The meeting was incredibly boring, being mostly just the two Kage's deciding on trade deals. I found myself repeatedly making eye contact with Kurotsuchi because she was directly across from me. Every once in awhile, during the most boring moments, I would cross my eyes or wiggle my eyebrows, and watch as she struggled to hold her laughs in while the Kages talked.

At some point, Roshi noticed it and joined in, waiting for moments of dead, uncomfortable silence, so we could watch as Kurotsuchi's face turned bright red, before a laugh would inevitably slip out, and she would try to cover it up by pretending it was a cough.

When lunch came around, the Kages, Han, Ao, and Chojuro stayed inside the tower to eat lunches that they had brought with them. Roshi and Kurotsuchi showed me a place that made some of the best sushi I had ever had, and we had an hour of joking around before we had to go back to the stuffy conference room.

The next three days were the same as the first, although Roshi had begged off from the lunch trips, leaving Kurotsuchi and I alone for lunch for three days. It wasn't until the fifth day we were in Iwagakure that I realized how comfortable I had become around Kurotsuchi. We were talking and joking around like we had known each other for decades. It probably should have scared me, how comfortable I felt around her, but it didn't. It just felt… natural. It almost made me want to stay in Iwagakure with Kurotsuchi instead of going back to Kirigakure. Almost.

The last day that we were in Iwagakure, I asked Mei if I could, perhaps, spend the day training rather than in a stuffy meeting room for something that I didn't want to be a part of. I knew that the meeting was pretty much going to just be the Kages discussing ambassadors and other communication channels, and, honestly, didn't see a reason for me to be in the meeting.

Thankfully, Mei, after explaining myself to her, understood what I was trying to say, and let me find my way through Iwa to a training ground. So, after a couple hours or so of stumbling through the village, and running through some basic physical exercises, I stood in the middle of a training ground, my left hand held in a ram seal and my right hand on the hilt of my katana. I ran through some standard slashes as steam rolled off me in waves until a rough dome shape was around me, looking and behaving remarkably like the Kirigakure no jutsu but for the fact that anyone inside it that wasn't me would be in unbearable amounts of pain as their flesh slowly got burned or melted off their bones.

I ran around the training ground with a small smile on my face when the steam followed me, harnessed around me by my chakra. I stopped after a minute or so and dropped my hand from its seal, the steam gradually dissipating off into the air.

Behind me, I heard both clapping and, quieter, the tapping of heels against the hard packed dirt and rock that made up the ground of the training ground. I turned around to see Mei with a smile on her face, her eye searching over my face and body reflexively in a practice born of my escapades during the war, when I would hide injuries I categorized as minor, but were often worse than I believed, and would land me on a bed in the medical tent a couple days later.

"Aunt Mei, I'm fine. I've only been training for a couple hours, hardly enough time to hurt myself." I said exasperatedly while fighting to keep a smile off my face. Even after so much time, it's still hard to believe that I have real family left, and that she cares so much.

"The Tsuchikage and I decided that we won't have need for permanent ambassadors. Any messages will be sent by either hawk or shinobi. I want to know that, in the future, if I have a message to send to Iwagakure, that you will be willing to deliver the message, even though it will mean potentially putting yourself a continent away, and unable to function as my personal bodyguard in that time." Mei looked at me while she spoke, her eyes roaming across my face as I felt my smile slide off my face. I opened my mouth to say something, probably some rant about how she shouldn't ask me to just abandon my only family for potentially weeks on end, but stopped myself when Mei raised her hand.

"I ask because there is no other person that I would ask to do this, because there is no one else I trust as much. So, if you can come up with a reason that doesn't involve how you don't want to leave me in the very capable hands of Ao, Chojuro, and Zabuza, as well as the rest of the Kiri shinobi, then, by all means, speak up." I closed my mouth when she said that, realizing that, no matter how much I argued and disagreed with Mei, she would, undoubtedly, eventually find some way to force me into it, and that it would be better to just agree now to do it and save both of us the time and energy.

"Fine, I'll do it." I said, jaw clenched in annoyance. Mei smiled at me and my anger slowly started slipping away. I looped my arms around Mei's shoulders and pulled her into a hug that she returned with a happy sigh. I stepped back after a minute or so, and followed Mei off the training ground back to our hotel, where we went to our separate rooms.

I closed the door behind me, and slowly started packing everything I had brought back into my sealing scrolls. After eating room service for dinner, I fell back onto my bed and fell into a restless sleep, plagued by dreams of a woman with pink eyes discovering my sordid past.

...

 **Iwagakure, Three months later:**

For the first time since the Kage meeting, I walked into Iwagakure, a scroll in a pouch on my vest that held a message for the Tsuchikage. Mei wouldn't tell me what what was in the scroll, which was worrying, but promised that she would tell me after I got back, and that I needn't wait to carry the Tsuchikage's response back to her in Kirigakure. So, Anbu mask on, and fully geared up as I would on any normal mission, I walked through the mountain into Iwagakure, the guards eyeing me nervously at both the entrance and the exit.

I walked through the village, heads turning to watch me as I did so, most eyes flicking up to see the Kirigakure symbol on the forehead of my mask, others flicking down to glare at the crossed out Konoha symbol on the strap used to hold my katana's sheath to my back. Uncaring, I kept walking until I stood at the doors to the Tsuchikage's tower.

I ascended through the tower and walked into the Tsuchikage's office after his receptionist let me past. I knocked several times on the door to his office, walking in after he yelled for me to enter.

I pulled the scroll out of the pouch, walking across the room to lay it on the desk in front of Onoki, pointedly ignoring the inquisitive stare coming from Kurotsuchi, who stood off to her grandfather's left, proudly sporting a new Jounin flak jacket. I waited silently as Onoki read the scroll, worry creasing his features as he did so.

"You're free to go." He said, running a hand down his face as he sat back. I nodded and turned to walk out when a messenger burst into the room.

"Tsuchikage-sama! The Kazekage has been captured by the Akatsuki! Sunagakure is requesting any and all aide we can send them!" He cried, looking incredibly flustered. I stopped dead in my tracks, my mind conjuring up the image of a redheaded boy with murder in his eyes, before it was sharply contrasted by the image of the Kazekage as he had appeared in his dossier, looking calm and composed, a flicker of happiness and pride in his eyes.

"We don't have any available shinobi. Tell them we aren't currently able to send them aide." Onoki's voice was laden with guilt and regret, and I clenched my hands as I turned to the messenger.

"Are any other villages sent aide?" I asked, my voice forcibly calm as I stared at the poor messenger, who was almost shaking in fear at being addressed by an Anbu.

"K-Konoha's team Kakashi has been dispatched, but they will be held up in Sunagakure for a bit to help where they can and to get more people before they move on. Kiri and Kumo have not sent shinobi to help." The messenger was nervous, more nervous than anyone I had ever spoken to. I took a step back, and took a deep breath, realizing that I was probably leaking KI unintentionally.

"Send word to Kirigakure that Boar, on resolving his previous mission, has decided to personally travel to aide Sunagakure." I said, turning away and walking toward the door, freezing when a hand fell on my shoulder. I turned to see pink eyes staring at me.

"Hey, old man, I'm going too." She yelled over her shoulder before she stared at me again. "I won't let you do this alone." She said, her eyes searching the eyeholes of my mask, trying to find something to indicate my thoughts. I saw Onoki nod from behind her at me, and turned to leave.

"Fine, we're leaving now." I said, throwing the doors open as I walked through them, Kurotsuchi not far behind me.

 **...**

 **Bingo book entry for Konoha Nukenin Jeremiah Terumi**

 **Age: 16**

 **Height: 5'11"**

 **Hair Color: Red**

 **Eye Color: Sea Green**

 **Rank: Chunin**

 **Affiliation: Jeremiah Terumi was, about 3 years ago, a Konohagakure shinobi. However, latest reports and sightings have indicated that he is deeply entrenched in the Godaime Mizukage's regime, though it is unsure exactly what role he fills.**

 **Aliases: Jeremiah no Raiton**

 **Speed: 5**

 **Strength: 2 (Seemingly cannot inflict large damage with singular blows without aide of chakra or weaponry. Relies mostly on weapons.)**

 **Intelligence: 4**

 **Taijutsu: 5**

 **Ninjutsu: 4 (Has not displayed much use of ninjutsu. Not much is known about his skill with the art, but when used, his ninjutsu are powerful.)**

 **Genjutsu: 2 (Can detect easily and dispel, does not seem to have many genjutsu in his arsenal.)**

 **Stamina: 4**

 **Hand Seals: 5**

 **Total: 31**

 **Assessment: A-rank threat, possibility to be a S-rank, approach with extreme caution. Chunin should avoid if possible. Terumi's registered shinobi rank is deceptive.**

 **Bounties:**

 **Iwagakure; dead or alive, 10,000,000 ryo**

 **Konohagakure; dead or alive, 1,000,000 ryo**

 **Otogakure; dead, 5,000,000 ryo**

…

 **A/N: Hey all, sorry for making you wait so long, but I hope you enjoyed the chapter, as well as the bingo book entry I threw in at the end. Thoughts and opinions, as always, are welcome.**

 **To any of you who watch RWBY, and are interested in reading a fanfic I wrote with my bud Bulba Fett, check out my profile, I like to think it's pretty good.**


	16. Chapter 16

**This is a fanmade production. The Naruto manga, anime, video games, or movies are owned by Viz Media and Masashi Kishimoto. Please support the official release.**

…

Kurotsuchi and I ran across the desolate landscape that was Sunagakure side by side. She had said little since we left Iwagakure, but frequently looked over to me inquisitively, clearly trying to figure something out about me. I was thankful that I was wearing my mask, because since she started eyeing me up, my cheeks had started to heat up, and it had little to do with the sun beating down on us in the desert.

"Why do you want to help him so much?" She asked, almost throwing me off guard. I had been expecting her to ask me much sooner. The fact that she had waited this long actually confused me a bit.

"He's a good person, who has worked hard to move past what people used to think of him. When I was younger, I didn't realize what becoming a nukenin would do to what people thought of me, but when I go somewhere, people actively fear me. The people of Kirigakure only tolerate me because I'm Mei's nephew. So, I can resonate with the work he must have had to put in to move past the image he had made for himself that made his village hate him when he was young." I said, my eyes scanning the horizon carefully, finally finding the walls of Sunagakure in the distance.

"There it is. If we speed up, we can catch the retrieval team as they depart." I lowered my head, shooting off, slowly widening the gap between myself and Kurotsuchi.

I reached the village a minute or so before Kurotsuchi did, and waited for Kurotsuchi to skid to a stop beside me before we approached the gates. Out of the gates walked Kakashi, a light green book in hand, flanked on the right by Naruto, who had traded out his blue and orange jacket for a black and orange one, who was followed by Sakura, who wore a short red skirt over tight black shorts, a red sleeveless shirt with a zipper and a fairly high collar, black gloves, and black boots that came up to just below her knees.

To Kakashi's left walked Sasuke, wearing a grey, zippered, high collar, short sleeved shirt under a Konoha Chunin flak jacket that had the collar cut off, navy blue wrist warmers, navy blue shinobi pants and sandals. His forehead protector was tied around his waist as a belt that held up the sheath of a chokuto behind his waist. Behind Sasuke walked an old woman with lavender hair that I immediately recognized from intel files as Lady Chiyo.

Naruto tapped Kakashi on the shoulder as they approached Kurotsuchi and I, causing him to put his book away and look up at us, his eye widening when he recognized Kurotsuchi immediately, and narrowing when he recognized me, but stayed silent, clearly expecting us to introduce ourselves. Sakura and Sasuke looked at us suspiciously as well, and Chiyo eyed us, her fingers twitching, readying for a fight that would hopefully never come.

I pulled my mask off slowly, stowing it in my weapons pouch, looking at Kakashi, ignoring the others who were openly glaring at me.

"Sorry about our late arrival. We would have been here earlier, but an old woman's cat was stuck in a tree and we had to stop and help her get her cat down." I said, stifling a smile when Kakashi chuckled softly, much to the chagrin of both his companions and Kurotsuchi. A moment later, I sobered up, and asked the question I wasn't sure I wanted answered.

"How is Cat? I heard she was taking missions again." I said, watching Kakashi's eye widening in recognition when I tied my Kirigakure headband around my left bicep.

"She could be doing better. Anko and I have been visiting her. She still misses you." He replied without emotion, making me wince slightly before I schooled my features back into neutrality.

"Right, well, to business. Kurotsuchi-san and I are here from Kirigakure and Iwagakure to help you in your mission to rescue the Kazekage." I smiled genially at them, my hands clasped behind my back, electricity sparking between the fingers of my right hand.

"Very well, then, you two will be under my command for the duration of the mission, is that understood?" Kakashi asked, eye searching my face for any indication of deceit. I nodded and relaxed, my hands unclasping after the electricity stopped sparking. I could feel Naruto about to explode and freak out, but a look from Kakashi stopped him before he could go anywhere. Likewise, Sasuke's eyes were now red, the tomoe spinning furiously as he tried to burn a hole in me with his eyes. Kurotsuchi just looked over at me, and the small smile I had plastered to my face before shaking her head and falling into step with me behind Team Kakashi.

We ran for a couple hours in uncomfortable silence behind Kakashi's dog summons, who were tracking Sasori through the scent left on a piece of cloth Chiyo had. Along the way, team Kakashi kept eyeing Kurotsuchi and I up, clearly wanting to discuss something alone.

"So, Akatsuki's clearly after Gaara's bijuu, right? They wouldn't capture him alive for anything else." I said, smirking internally when Naruto, Sakura, and Sasuke all looked at me surprised, and smiled outwardly when Kurotsuchi openly laughed at their reactions.

"Oh, please, how're you surprised? I'm clearly a Kirigakure Anbu, my Aunt is the Mizukage, Kirigakure itself has two bijuu, and I've already ran into Kisame and Itachi when they were after Naruto. It can hardly be a big revelation that I know why Akatsuki kidnapped Gaara." I realized that I sounded very petty, but, at this point, I didn't much care. I looked over at Kurotsuchi and she nodded through her mirth.

"And, c'mon, I was trained by the Four Tails jinchuuriki, and know the Five Tails jinchuuriki personally. Very little you say will be new information to us." Kurotsuchi said, smiling at me as she did. I smiled back before I looked back forward to see team Kakashi watching us carefully.

"Alright, do we know how long it takes to extract a bijuu from a jinchuuriki?" Naruto asked Kakashi, who shrugged.

"It depends, my sensei once said that the time it takes could vary widely, depending on the state of the jinchuuriki and the method of extraction, but, if I were to take a guess, I would say we don't have long. It's been a couple days already, and I'd optimistically give it until the end of the day before they're done with whatever they need to do." Kakashi said somberly.

"Then I suppose my intervention would be most unfortunate for you." A deep monotone voice said from in front of us, bringing us all to a sudden halt. In front of us, as if he wasn't staring down several people who very much wanted to kill him, stood Itachi Uchiha, in his black cloak with red clouds. I heard Sasuke growl in anger, and heard him pull his sword partially out of the sheath.

I stepped forward ahead of team Kakashi, drawing my katana as I did so, and felt Itachi's eyes fix on me while mine dropped to his navel. I heard Sasuke step up next to me, his chokuto drawn and pointed threateningly at Itachi. "Kakashi, go ahead without us. This isn't really Itachi. Jeremiah and I will deal with him easily." He growled out, and Kakashi, Naruto, Sakura, and Chiyo shot past us immediately. Kurotsuchi, however, waited a beat, and I felt her hand rest on my shoulder for a moment before she ran off after the others.

"You're as humble as ever, Sasuke." I said, receiving only a grunt in response. "Alright, you'd better be right about this. I don't fancy fighting the real Itachi." I bent my knees slightly, shifting my feet a bit farther apart, as I felt the familiar tingle that came with my chakra network becoming awash with lightning chakra. Sasuke and I split up, as I ran off to my left to descend on Itachi from his right, and Sasuke came from Itachi's left.

I reached Itachi moments before Sasuke did and, drawing my katana back, I sliced forward, coating the blade in lightning chakra just as Itachi brought a kunai up to block it, slicing clean through the kunai, but the attack did little more, as Itachi moved backwards to avoid the follow through. Sasuke attacked with his sword, swinging at Itachi's legs, forcing Itachi to jump up into the air.

Seeing Itachi leap up, I quickly stopped myself and turned around, blasting steam chakra from the bottom of my feet, launching myself forward. As I reached Itachi, he was still a foot or so off the ground, and I jumped up, spinning to bring my outstretched heel around to crash into his cheek. Much to my dismay, Itachi simply disappeared in a puff of smoke, a log taking the hit in his place, exploding into splinters.

I turned to look around me as I fell, only to see Itachi spit a massive fireball at Sasuke and I, one that I barely stopped, sheathing my katana and running through handsigns and spitting a wall of water out of my mouth as I landed, "Suiton: Suijinheki!" When I stopped the jutsu, Sasuke and I charged forward at Itachi, who ran forward to meet us, though his eyes were fixed on Sasuke. Sasuke struck out with a punch, landing a hit square on Itachi's cheek, only for him to explode into crows that reformed behind us.

I turned around and ran through more hand seals to use a jutsu that Mei had taught me. "Suiton: Eki Shizuku Supia!" I yelled as Sasuke ran forward, chokuto out and slashing at Itachi. An orb of water formed in the palm of my hand and when I turned it to face Itachi, the water blasted out in several spear shapes that spiralled around each other before they reached Sasuke's back, where they split around Sasuke and converged on Itachi, hitting him and piercing him through the chest, only for Itachi to once again disappear into a puff of smoke, leaving behind a log to impaled.

I heard footsteps behind me and ducked down when I heard the keening of a blade heading toward my head. Itachi's hand passed over my head, but jumped back when Sasuke ran towards us and stabbed at Itachi over my head. I rolled off to the side to watch the two siblings fight for a moment before I ran back at Itachi, my eyes searching him carefully for any hesitation or twitch that would indicate that he was anything less than perfect in battle.

I unfortunately found nothing by the time I reached them and struck out with a kick propelled by steam chakra at Itachi's head from the side. At the last possible moment, Itachi planted a palm into Sasuke's chest, throwing him painfully across the dirt before he turned and grabbed my leg, turning and throwing me through the air, forcing me to focus on righting myself in midair so I didn't land catastrophically.

I landed back on the ground and looked around to see Itachi standing where Sasuke and I had started the fight, staring calmly at us. I charged forward when I felt Sasuke's chakra spike, and saw him start to form hand seals. I threw a punch that Itachi easily deflected away from his face, but succeeded in pulling his attention away from his stomach, where, propelled by steam chakra, my knee buried itself faster than he could react, and forcing him several steps backward.

Itachi drew a kunai in one hand and ran at me, striking faster than I thought possible, and forcing me to soak my chakra network in lightning chakra once more, enhancing my reflexes enough that I could dodge the slashes and stabs interspersed with punches and kicks, all done with machine-like efficiency and speed. Itachi forced me back several meters before I heard Sasuke yell from behind me.

"Raiton: Chidori Eiso!" He yelled, and I felt more than saw, a spear of lightning shoot from behind me, barely past my torso and under my armpit to strike Itachi in his shoulder. I took advantage of Itachi's lapse in concentration, and, in one swift motion, drew my katana, coated it in lightning chakra, and cut clean through his torso, cutting him in half from his left shoulder to his right hip.

I stepped back slowly, flicking my blade to rid it of the blood, and watched with little surprise as Itachi's face morphed into a face of someone I didn't recognize. Sasuke walked over and stared at the corpse for a moment before he nodded. "Thought so. His chakra looked and felt wrong. It looks like some strange bastardized version of the clone jutsu." I nodded too before we ran off back into the forest after team Kakashi.

…

We caught up with them outside a cave that was blocked by a massive boulder with a sealing tag on it, standing in a circle, likely discussing how to get past the boulder. As Sasuke and I arrived, team Gai jumped down from the trees near us and landed next to Sasuke and I as we walked up to the others. I could feel the stares from team Gai as they each recognized me.

As we walked, I slowly started transforming my chakra into steam chakra, waiting for someone to attack me. However, as we reached team Kakashi, Sasuke stayed by my side, and Kurotsuchi came to stand on my left. She looked over at me, placed a hand on my shoulder, and I felt my apprehension melt away, and I slowly let the steam chakra I had gathered dissipate into the air, creating a subtle haze around me that caught Kakashi's eye briefly.

Kakashi and Gai discussed something briefly, involving a couple looks over to Kurotsuchi and I, and Kakashi gesturing off into the forest a few times before Gai grouped back up with his team, handing out earpieces to them, and one to Kakashi. Kakashi walked back over to our group to give us a rundown as Gai and his team ran off.

"So, since Gai's team has been at a dead sprint all day, they aren't prepared to fight any members of Akatsuki. They're going to find the tags that are linked to the one on the boulder so we can remove all of them simultaneously. When the tag is off, Sakura, I want you to break apart the boulder. From the description of the Akatsuki members from the attack, we can assume that we're fighting Deidara of Iwagakure, and Sasori of the Red Sand. Kurotsuchi, Chiyo-sama, and Sakura will fight Sasori. Naruto, Sasuke, Jeremiah and I will fight Deidara. Remember, we need to keep them separated." He said, and we all nodded our affirmation, even though Kurotsuchi and Naruto both seemed slightly uneasy about their assignments. Kurotsuchi's, obviously, because she wanted to fight Deidara, and Naruto didn't seemed to like my presence on his small squad. They waited a few minutes, until Kakashi put a hand up to his ear, other hand hovering over the tag on the boulder, counting down before ripping the tag off.

"Okay, Sakura, knock the boulder down." He said, stepping back. Sakura nodded, a smile on her face as she marched up, tightening the glove on her right hand, and cocking it back. Before her hand could impact the boulder, however, it exploded outward, a flash of white, black, and a little yellow shooting out of the cave.

"That's Deidara. Jeremiah, Sasuke, Naruto, let's go." Kakashi said, and I shot off after what I could now tell was a large clay hawk. I shot a glance behind me to see Kurotsuchi meet my gaze momentarily before following Sakura and Granny Chiyo into the cave before looking back forward, following the Konoha shinobi.

…

 **A/N: Hey all, I know that this has been a while coming, and it's short, and I apologize for that. All the same, hope you liked the chapter, next chapter we'll see the first real fights our favorite characters and Sakura get into against the Akatsuki. See you all next time, PEACE!**


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